It’s been a season of rebuilding for the GHS soccer program, especially for the boys under first-year head coach Lukas Shoemaker, yet both squads have qualified for the state tournament. They each did so by winning at least one of their three games in the 6A West conference tournament last week.
The Lady Bulldogs (8-10), the three-seed from the West, will play Jacksonville, seeded sixth from the East, on Thursday at 2 p.m. on the campus of Arkansas Tech University in Russellville. The winner moves on to the quarterfinals on Friday against two-seed Searcy, also at ATU.
The Bulldogs (4-17), the four-seed from the West, will play Marion, the five-seed from the East, on Thursday at 12 noon at Arkansas Tech. The winner of that match will move on to the quarterfinals on Friday against top-seeded Jonesboro, also on the ATU campus.
Lady Bulldogs
The GHS girls ended their regular season campaign with a narrow home loss (2-1) to the Lady Cyclones of Russellville on Thursday, April 26th. The match was scoreless at the break, but the visitors managed to sneak in a pair of second half scores. Junior Emma Akeson scored the lone GHS goal.
The Greenwood girls then got sweet revenge two days later, winning their opening round game in the 6A West tournament on the road, defeating those very same Lady Cyclones 3-1 in a shootout.
The match was tied at 0-0 at the half and remained so through the end of regulation play. The Lady Bulldogs then won the shootout convincingly. Goalkeeper Camryn Presley was credited with five saves.
Round two of tournament play required the Lady Bulldogs to travel to Benton last Tuesday, and the result was not pretty, with the Lady Panthers (14-4) taking a 6-0 victory, scoring three goals in each half.
Then last Saturday the GHS girls rebounded, despite making the long haul to El Dorado, beating the Lady Wildcats in overtime. Greenwood trailed 1-0 at the half, but the match was tied at 2-2 when regulation play ended.
Head Coach Andrew Post and his girls then won the shootout 4-3 to claim the win and improve their seeding in the state tournament. Once again, goalkeeper Camryn Presley had five saves in the victory over El Dorado.
Bulldogs
The GHS boys closed out their regular season on April 26th with a 3-0 home loss to Russellville, one of the top soccer programs in the conference and across the state. The visiting Cyclones scored one first half goal before adding a pair of netters after the intermission.
Coach Shoemaker and his Bulldogs then opened 6A West conference tournament play two days later on April 28th, pulling off a mild upset on the road by beating higher seeded El Dorado, 2-1.
Each team scored once in the opening half before Greenwood’s lone second-half goal and solid defense sealed the victory and earned the ‘Dogs a spot in the 6A state tournament.
Assured their post-season would continue beyond the league tournament, the Bulldogs traveled to Siloam Springs last Tuesday to take on another soccer powerhouse in the Panthers, losing 3-0.
Their final tournament match was also on the road at Benton to determine which team would get the three-seed from the West, and Benton (14-3) won handily, 6-1, scoring four times in the opening 40 minutes. Greenwood’s lone goal also came in the first half.