FAYETTEVILLE PUTS TOGETHER COMPLETE MATCH, DROPS ROGERS HERITAGE

Fayetteville's boys put together one of their most complete matches of the season, as the Bulldogs disposed of Rogers Heritage 3-1 in 7A-West Conference soccer play Friday night at Harmon Field. The victory keeps Fayetteville (5-7 overall, 3-1 7A West Conference) in third place in league play. "As a unit, we played as well as we've played all year," Fayetteville coach Joe Thoma said. "We were pretty much spot on. ... I'm just really proud of the guys, and what they've been doing and what they've been putting out on the field." The Purple'Dogs scored first, when Jonah Glover knocked in a free kick from about 25 yards out in the 12th minute. Heritage coach Christian Saavedra said Fayetteville's early score gave the Purple'Dogs momentum. "The momentum is what it's all about. Any time (you give up) an early goal, it's hard to shake that off mentally as a player and as a coach," he said. "You want to make sure you get that lead early, and (Fayetteville) did what they needed to do. "After they got an early goal, we made some arrangements to where it opened up more for them to have more shots." And Fayetteville made Heritage pay by scoring its final two goals in the final 20 minutes of match play. In the 21st minute, Lawson Templeton put a rebound of a Jan Bobda miss past the keeper. The play was set up when Jose Rodriguez beat the War Eagles (4-5, 0-4) down the right sideline, then sent a cross to Bobda deep in the goal box. "Today we actually looked like a team instead of guys just running around kicking a ball," Thoma said. "We were finding each other. The good thing is we were looking for each other, not just finding each other. There were guys moving off the ball looking for the gaps." Fayetteville scored again in the 50th minute when Thomas Burch raced past the War Eagles defense on the right sideline, knocking his shot off the cross bar, which passed the keeper for the score. Wilmer Arrue scored Heritage's only goal in the 67th minute off an assist from Matt Many. "The assist was perfect , right where they needed to be,"said Saavedra of the goal. "(Arrue) was in the right place at the right time. He is a great player, so he finished it." Girls Fayetteville 5, Rogers Heritage 2 Myra Tubb and Regan Resz each scored two goals for Fayetteville as the Lady Bulldogs scored four second-half goals to secure the sweep Friday night. Resz' first goal proved to be the highlight of the night, as her over-the-head bicycle kick in the 32nd minute gave Fayetteville a 1-0 lead. Her second goal came in the final minute of action to knot the final score. Box scored two goals in a 5-minute span for Fayetteville (8-5, 2-2), the first on a hard shot from 30 yards out in the 60th minute. Georgia Templeton scored off a corner kick in the 47th minute. Grace Brackett and Kenadi Coones each scored for Heritage (3-8, 0-4). Fayetteville returns to action Tuesday, when it hosts Har-Ber, while Heritage travels to Bentonville West.

FAYETTEVILLE PUTS TOGETHER COMPLETE MATCH, DROPS ROGERS HERITAGE

Photo Credit: Ben Goff

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