El Dorado girls to meet Harrison in soccer tournament

The El Dorado girls soccer program has a history of entering the state tournament with a high seed and advancing beyond the first round. The Lady Wildcats have struggled a bit this season, however, and will sit in third place in Thursday’s 5A state tournament at Hot Springs Lakeside.

That comes on top of a tough first-round draw against Harrison, the No. 2 seed in the robust 5A West. The Goblins are 15-4-1 overall with two losses to Siloam Springs.

The game starts at 2 p.m.

“They have a good program in that they have a lot of players in the league. They have a good reserve to draw from. It’s going to be a tough team,” El Dorado coach Neville Matthews said. “I go in there feeling like I’m the underdog. I just want my girls to play well and whatever the results, I will be happy. It’s going to be hard. It has been a difficult season.

El Dorado brings an 11-5-1 record to the state tournament.

The Goblins lost to top-seeded Siloam Springs 1-0 last week.

“We have to play more defensively and more opportunistically and, I mean, try to counter-attack them if they make a mistake. Defense will be our main focus,” Matthews said. “If we can hold them in a close game and beat them on a counter-attack, I think we will be fine. I have London with its maximum speed. If we can hold the defense and get her the ball, I think she can get through their defense and put some balls in the net.

The Lady Wildcats enter the game limping a bit. In addition to graduating most of its roster last season, El Dorado lost its starting goalie this year, with defender Keyla Ramirez taking over in goal.

Offensively, senior London Ingram has shouldered much of the scoring load and she was banged up at Lake Hamilton in the conference finals last week.

“We have some damaged kids. The last few games we’ve been digging deep,” Matthews said. “I mean London had a slight injury. Some of my defenders are a little injured. They don’t use it as a crutch. They will hold on. They endured. They will come out on Thursday.

“But yeah, we had to put a lot of bandages on the gunshot wounds.”

The underdog role was foreign to the Lady Wildcats early in the season. But they have gotten used to it and are enjoying the challenge against Harrison. Matthews said the team has already accomplished a lot this season.

“They dug deep. We’re kind of one-dimensional but we make it work. What we have to work with, we make it work,” he said. “Just being in the playoffs is a plus for me. This is not at all what I thought we would be. If we made the playoffs, I thought we could get a fourth seed. But the guys held on all season. They had to play hard to win. We just have to finish it. Who knows? We play hard, we might find a W.

“We’re going to play well and hope for the best.”