Hutto coming on strong for Lady Panthers

Graham Thomas/Herald-Leader Siloam Springs freshman Megan Hutto, seen here last Saturday in the 6A semifinals against Mountain Home, scored five goals in two games in the 6A state tournament last week. Hutto has eight goals on the season.
Graham Thomas/Herald-Leader Siloam Springs freshman Megan Hutto, seen here last Saturday in the 6A semifinals against Mountain Home, scored five goals in two games in the 6A state tournament last week. Hutto has eight goals on the season.

When junior forward Khenli Harp was lost for the season with a knee injury at home on April 10 against Van Buren, the Siloam Springs girls soccer team had a void to fill on offense.

Enter freshman Megan Hutto.

Hutto, who had been starting at defensive back for most of the season, was brought forward into the attack and the move is starting to pay dividends for the defending 6A champion Lady Panthers (13-4), who play Searcy in the 6A state finals at 10 a.m. on Saturday at Razorback Field in Fayetteville.

Hutto scored five goals in two games last week in the Class 6A state tournament in Searcy, giving her eight goals for the season.

"We had her in the back because she has tremendous speed and soccer savvy," said Siloam Springs soccer coach Chuck Jones. "But whenever Khenli went down we felt like she would be an answer up top. It took her a game or two to feel comfortable, but man she's had a tremendous second half of the season for us.

"She plays with the ball well at her feet. She also plays well with the ball off her feet. To be a freshman and be as poised as she is is something special."

Hutto scored three goals in Siloam Springs' 5-0 win against Texarkana in the 6A quarterfinals. She then followed up her hat trick with two more goals the next day as the Lady Panthers rallied to beat Mountain Home 5-2 in the semifinals last Saturday.

"Megan's that player that you can pass it to and you know she's going to do good with it," said sophomore forward Maycee Lance, who also scored two goals against Mountain Home and leads the team with 11 goals.

Special rally

Days after Siloam Springs scored five straight goals to rally from a 2-0 deficit in the second half against Mountain Home, Jones was still amazed at what the Lady Panthers did.

Siloam Springs trailed 2-0 after the Lady Bombers got two goals from Ana Helmert midway through the second half.

Hutto got the Lady Panthers on the board with a goal with 15 minutes, 17 seconds remaining. Freshman Audrey Maxwell, who has scored four goals this season, scored to tie the game. Hutto added another goal to give the Lady Panthers the lead and Lance scored twice to finish off Mountain Home in the victory.

"You know I don't know that I've witnessed anything like that as well," Jones said. "Just the shift in the emotions from the first half to the second half and going down two goals, there were a couple of minutes there where it looked like we were starting to fall apart and lose our composure. The first goal (we scored) just totally changed the emotion of the game. I felt like they got a little tight and we just went at them."

A.C. ready to go

Sophomore goalkeeper Anna Claire Lewis left Saturday's semifinals with a hip strain injury, but she should be good to go for this Saturday's state final, Jones said.

"We feel like now it's just a muscular situation," Jones said. "With a couple of days rest and Coach (Brian) Nitz will do a great job getting her ready to go -- we hope to have her back out here getting some light reps and have her ready to go for the game."

Freshman Caroline Dinger played the rest of the semifinal game in goal for the Lady Panthers.

"I have absolute confidence in Caroline," Jones said. "She's done a great job for us in JV games all year. She's well-trained. And I have all the confidence in the world if she has to be in there."

Searcy rematch

The Lady Panthers and Searcy played for the 6A state title in 2013 with Searcy winning 3-1 at Razorback Field.

The Lady Lions defeated Greenwood 1-0 in the semifinals to reach this Saturday's game.

"Searcy's a very solid team," Jones said. "Them and Greenwood are very similar. Both are very athletic teams. They have good speed. I feel like it's going to be a good matchup between both teams."

Sports on 05/20/2015