Arkadelphia vs. Hope

            Arkadelphia’s boys and girls played at Hope last Thursday and both needed the win to keep their State Playoffs dreams alive.  The girls played first and both teams played hard and looked excited to play. Arkadelphia struck first with a goal near the beginning of the first half.  Hope finally started gaining more possession near the end of the first half and was able to put in an equalizing goal. The first half ended with a tie at 1-1. Arkadelphia’s girls came out slow in the second half and let Hope’s girls slip in a go ahead goal. Arkadelphia played solid defense the rest of the half, but were down by 1 the whole half.  With less than a minute to go Spencer Tuggle received the ball around the 25 yard line and she dribbled to the 18 yard marker and took a shot and scored the game tying goal.  It was a very clutch play and could have been the play of the game.  The game ended with a draw and had to go to a PK shootout. Arkadelphia went first and they missed their first 3 and Hope made 1 out of their first 3.  Arkadelphia then made their last 2, which meant that Hope needed to make 1 out of their last 2 and they missed their first 1 and Julie French ,who switched to goalie for PK’s, blocked their final shot to win the game. The rest of the girls' team and the whole boy’s team stormed the field in enjoyment and in extremely good fashion. The girl’s dream of playoffs is still alive.

            The boys had to follow up a very exciting game after they stormed the field for the girls' win.  They started the game with the best possession half they have had since the beginning of the year when they went undefeated in out of conference play.  The boys scored twice in the first half and played great defense.  The boys continued to dominate and went on to win 4-1 and their only blemish was on a shot that ricocheted off Reed Medlock for an own goal.  The highlight of the boy’s game was Camden Dwelle’s hat trick.  The boys also kept their playoff dreams alive.

            Arkadelphia plays CAC at home on Tuesday and then next Monday will play at Hot Springs and Arkadelphia can win either game to go make playoffs.