By Sean Saunders of The Hot Springs Sentinel Record

PEARCY -- Murphy's Law was in full effect for the Lake Hamilton Wolves, resulting in their first 6A-South soccer loss of the season.

Benton freshman Garrett Bosley broke loose for five goals as the Panthers rolled 8-0 over the Wolves, who finished Tuesday night's game with nine players.

"I really don't have anything to say," Lake Hamilton coach Stan Cooper said. "What I want to say, I can't let you repeat it."

Lake Hamilton's first error was a hand ball in the box in the 19th minute, resulting in a penalty kick. Andrew Norris buried the penalty in the top-right corner, 1-0.

The game turned in the 22nd minute when Matt Warrick got free for a breakaway. He and Ethan Edgin collided as Edgin was trying to recover, and Cooper thought Edgin didn't commit a foul.
The referee saw it differently, giving Edgin an automatic red card for denying "an obvious goal-scoring opportunity," as the rule reads.

"There was no intent there," Cooper said. "It was just a case of them both going for the ball, and they just got their feet tangled up. There was nothing for me there that warranted it. A yellow card, maybe, but to me an automatic red on that, that was probably the worst call I've ever seen in my career."

The infraction resulted in the Wolves (3-3, 3-1) playing a man down for the remaining 58 minutes, and Edgin has to miss Friday's contest at Little Rock Parkview.

"Ethan is probably our anchor man back there defensively with his speed," Cooper said. "You take him out of the mix, and you don't have much speed left back there to keep up with some of those fast guys."

Edgin's absence was immediately felt as the speedy Bosley timed his runs perfectly to beat Lake Hamilton's offside trap, scoring four breakaway goals in the six minutes following Edgin's exit.

Running onto Norris' through ball in the 23rd minute, Bosley gave the Panthers (5-1, 4-1) a 2-0 lead.

Just one minute later, it was younger brother Aaron Norris' turn to spring Bosley for a 3-0 lead. The elder Norris began a Bosley break in the 27th, followed by the younger Norris' through ball to Bosley in the 28th to make it 5-0 the remainder of the first half.

Lake Hamilton goalkeeper Anthony Mark tried to keep Benton at bay with several highlight saves in the first 20 minutes of the second half, recording six of his eight saves in the final period, but playing a man down wore down the Wolves. In the 65th minute, Andy Giron sprang Bosley for his final goal, enacting the mercy rule at 6-0.

"It was a great game for him," said Benton coach Bobby Winn of Bosley. "He's a class player. He's one of the better ones in the state. He just has to settle in and figure out where his niche is for our team. It's obviously playing forward."

Even with the remaining time halved, the Panthers still kept scoring, Giron making it 7-0 on an assist from Tyler Vandiver. The Wolves then had a second player sent off for getting into a disagreement with the referee in the next-to-last minute.

"We played great," Winn said. "We started a little shaky in the first half, but we finished the game really well. We always talk about certain things in our program. We want to play with character first, and then we work a lot of possession. We don't like to play the ball over the top. We want to possess to win.

"And I thought our character showed throughout the night. Even when some hard fouls were going against us, we kept it together and didn't retaliate. We just went on to do what we do, and that's score goals and win games."

Giron put the exclamation on a big road win with a rebound in the final minute. The Panthers finished with 23 shots to Lake Hamilton's seven, with none of the Wolves' strikes on target.
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Sports on 04/07/2016

Story by Sean Saunders of The Hot Springs Sentinel Record

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

PEARCY -- Although not dominant, the Benton girls soccer team had two standout individual performers Tuesday.

Annah Kate Smith scored three goals and Julia Dick recorded three assists in a 6-2 conference victory over host Lake Hamilton at Bank of the Ozarks Field.

Benton got going quickly, Kinley Ritter netting a 45-yard free kick in the second minute. Then the Lady Panthers (5-1, 4-1) began an onslaught of through balls, Dick lobbing a long pass to Smith in the 13th minute for a breakaway that made it 2-0.

In the 17th minute, Madison McVey served a through ball to Smith, pushing the advantage to 3-0. In the 22nd minute, Dick served another through pass, Hattie Mahoney finishing.

Lake Hamilton responded in the 26th minutes, Logan Keener bending a 20-yard free kick into the top-right corner to make it 4-1.

"Those are great," Lake Hamilton coach Stacey Scott said. "Those just lift your spirits, when you have a goal like that. Any goal for us is important."

The goal seemed to energize the Lady Wolves, keeping the ball in Benton's end of the field for stretches though allowing a long pass to Mahoney down the near sideline. Mahoney crossed to Abby Walker in the 39th minute for a 5-1 halftime lead.

"We came out and played a lot better in the second half," Scott said. "We had more shots on goal, and we started doing a lot of the things we've been working on in practice. We just fell short."
Keener scored a second goal in the 48th minute, Daya Ibarra supplying a free kick.

"She's huge for us," Scott said. "She plays a key leadership position for us. We depend on her experience on the field."

Smith completed her hat trick on a pass from Dick in the 65th minute, an offsides penalty nullifying a
later Benton goal.

Lake Hamilton goalkeeper Jasmine Garcia finished with seven saves, facing 20 shots.

Lake Hamilton travels to Little Rock Parkview on Friday.

​Sports on 04/06/2016

Women's Player of the Game