Wolves Lose Shootout On Senior Night

MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER/In between the boys and girls varsity soccer matches against Eureka Springs Wednesday, April 17, Lincoln celebrated senior night for soccer.
MARK HUMPHREY ENTERPRISE-LEADER/In between the boys and girls varsity soccer matches against Eureka Springs Wednesday, April 17, Lincoln celebrated senior night for soccer.

LINCOLN -- Lincoln suffered a 4-1 loss to Eureka Springs in boys soccer action on senior night when the match went into a shootout.

Eureka Springs took an early 1-0 lead on a goal by senior Griffin Taylor assisted by junior Joel Harris. The Wolves repeatedly attacked, but couldn't get a goal to go in throughout the first half and for most of regulation.

Eureka Springs sophomore goalkeeper Preston Hyatt had a lot to do with that. He was credited with 18 saves.

"We just kind of came out unlucky. Their goalkeeper had an amazing game," said Lincoln coach Paul Crouch. "Their players fought really hard to keep us out of the back of the net."

The wind also played a factor as the Wolves trailed until sophomore Noe Avellenada scored with 3:40 remaining to tie the match at 1-1.

"It was on a corner kick. There wasn't a deflection or anything," Crouch said. "He came on a corner kick. The ball got through, really good bending corner kick, pretty good texture on the ball and was able to find the back of the net on it."

At the 2:05 mark, Daytin Davis was undercut and drew a penalty kick which was blocked by the Highlanders. Lincoln got a shot-on-goal that went wide right with 1:43 showing.

The Wolves had to defend a Highlander attack with Lincoln's goalie making a save with 51.6 seconds to play.

Lincoln mounted a final attack, but had a shot blocked by Hyatt with less than a second remaining, sending the match into a shootout.

"Their goalkeeper just made a miraculous save. That's all there was too it and he stepped up big on penalty kicks, too," Crouch said. "We just didn't execute there, but I really like our fight coming out of halftime. We came back second half and really took it to them. We just didn't come out with a win today, but I respect our effort today."

Lincoln was not able to connect during the shootout while Eureka Springs got successful kicks from senior Kayden Eckman, Taylor and sophomore Gustavo Tapia to claim the win.

Despite the loss on senior night, Crouch likes the direction he sees the program heading.

"We have a lot of really good youth coming up. We have a good group of eighth-graders right now, but I'm excited about this team. We got four really good seniors. We've had some really good games. We've had some big wins this year," Crouch said. "I'm excited to see what this team will do the rest of this year because it's not over today. I think we're going to do big things the rest of the season."

A day later the Wolves rebounded to win a 5-0 shutout over Bergman bringing their record to 5-10 overall and 3-4 in conference play going into the final week of the regular season.

After the match the Wolves honored four seniors: Rogelio Cardenas, Cole Hunton, Andre Valle and Andrew West.

Lincoln traveled to Green Forest Monday, then goes to Decatur Thursday and finishes the regular season at home against Lead Hill this coming Monday.

Sports on 04/24/2019