CLASS 6A GIRLS SOCCER

Siloam rallies late, storms back to win

SEARCY -- Siloam Springs girls soccer Coach Chuck Jones has thought his team was capable of scoring in bunches all season. It just didn't happen all that often.

The defending Class 6A state champions picked a good time to break out Saturday morning.

After Mountain Home scored two goals in the span of 12 minutes to take a lead in the second half of Saturday's semifinal of the Class 6A girls soccer state tournament, Siloam Springs scored five goals in the final 15:17 for an improbable 5-2 comeback victory that sent the Lady Panthers to next week's 6A final for the third consecutive season.

"We have had a few games like that," Jones said. "But for the most part, we get lots of opportunities and we just haven't been able to finish. It happens in spurts when we do, and I think that gives us confidence."

After falling behind 2-0 with 19:45 left, Siloam Springs (13-4) got two goals each from Megan Hutto and Maycee Lance and one goal from Audrey Maxwell to overtake Mountain Home (12-6-2) in a rematch of last year's 6A state title game.

Jones and Hutto each said the deficit with little time remaining relaxed their team. Jones said there was a stretch in which the Panthers "turned on each other" and allowed Mountain Home's Ana Helmert to score on a breakaway in the 49th minute and again in the 61st to take a 2-0 lead.

"I was kind of freaked out a little bit, I've got to admit," Hutto said. "We were beginning to come apart. We weren't like a team."

Hutto helped the Panthers come back together. Her goal from about five yards out after making a move to get into the middle of the field made it 2-1 with 15:17 left in the game. Then less than three minutes later, Maxwell's return off a ball deflected by the Mountain Home goalkeeper tied the game at 2-2.

Hutto's follow on a ball that bounced off the right post gave Siloam Springs a 3-2 lead with 7:37 left. Then Lance received a cross pass to score with 6:46 left and Lance's final score came with 1:23 remaining.

Mountain Home Coach Jeff Obert said his team's physical 2-0 victory over El Dorado on Friday might have contributed to the tough final stretch.

"That may have had some effect on how we played today," Obert said. "They know how to step it up and keep the momentum going. I knew that coming in, and from what I heard about the team, that's how they could play. They got it, and we couldn't get it back."

SEARCY 1, GREENWOOD 0

Searcy spent the first 68 minutes of Saturday's 6A semifinal missing on opportunities to score against Greenwood's pressure defense. It was a free kick as the second-half clock was winding down that ended up being the difference.

Abby Dixon's free kick from the left sideline from about 25 yards out found the top right corner of the net and gave Searcy (13-1-2) the only goal it needed to return to the 6A final for the second time in three seasons. Searcy beat Siloam Springs in the 2013 final. Greenwood's season finished at 5-3-5.

6A BOYS

SILOAM SPRINGS 6, JONESBORO 2

Aldair Umana and Ricardo Aguilar each scored two goals to help Siloam Springs join the school's girls team in next weeks Class 6A state final.

Siloam Springs (10-6-1) scored four goals in less than nine minutes during the first half..

Steven Iglasias put the Panthers up 1-0 with a goal in traffic from about 10 yards out less than five minutes into the game. Jonesboro (15-9) tied it when Will Smith scored less than a minute later. Siloam Springs added a goal by Aguilar with 32:28 left in the first half, and Uman sent a shot from the right side to the lower left corner of the net five minutes later to make it 3-1.

After each team converted penalty kicks to make the score 4-2 at halftime, Aguilar scored nine minutes into the second half and Tyler Low provided the final points for Siloam Springs.

RUSSELLVILLE 3, SEARCY 0

Russellville needed less than a minute to set a tone in Saturday's other 6A boys semifinal.

Nate Turner's goal 34 seconds into the game from the right side of the box gave Russellville (14-6) a lead, and it never let Searcy (11-4-1) get too many opportunities in earning a return trip to the 6A state final, where it beat Greenwood last year.

Tony Jones added a goal with 25:55 left in the first half on a return right in front of the goal, and Russellville got its last goal with 11:30 left, when Landon Short scored off a corner kick.

Sports on 05/17/2015

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