Shoemaker-led boys grind out victory

Luke Shoemaker, assistant soccer coach at Siloam Springs, knows how emotional senior night can be.

Typically, before a match, Shoemaker is the one in charge of getting the varsity boys team fired up before it takes the field for warm-ups, but there was no need Thursday night.

"I had to give them a calm-down speech," Shoemaker said. "Usually I have to give them a build-up speech and try to motivate them that way. This was more of a relax, let's go play soccer."

A fired-up Siloam Springs boys team, with Shoemaker at the helm, gathered itself together enough to score two second-half goals and defeat Clarksville 2-1 on senior night in a battle of Panthers at Panther Stadium.

"I was proud of their effort. This team, that's one thing they always gives is great effort," said Shoemaker, who was acting head coach with SSHS head coach Brent Crenshaw unable to coach because of being issued a red card in Siloam Springs' previous game against Russellville on April 20.

Jack Bos and Eli Jackson each scored goals within five minutes of each other to open the second half, and sophomore goalkeeper Wyatt Church made a pair of saves in the final minutes as Siloam Springs held on for the win.

Siloam Springs had a pair of good looks to score in the first half but header from Bos off a corner kick just missed, and a 45-yard free kick from Christian Marroquin banged off the cross bar to keep the score tied 0-0 at halftime.

"I said we've got to start hitting dingers and get the ball forward, and then we have to make plays off of it," Shoemaker said. "Credit to Eli, he buried one. And Jack, that was just a pure effort play. He probably ran 80 yards to put that one in the back of the net."

Siloam Springs first found the back of the net just more than a minute into the second half.

Bos, a junior center back, played a ball forward and continued with the play forward up the field. The ball ended up in the box and banged around until Bos knocked it in with his body with 38:50 left in the second half. It was his sixth goal of the season.

"Bos, with his big ol' body, so often he's been called for fouls that went against us," Shoemaker said. "I think that was karma coming around, and he just ran it into the net with his chest."

Jackson added a second goal for Siloam Springs with 34:11 left when he finished off a combination play for his ninth goal of the year and fifth straight game in which he's scored.

"We just found (Jackson's) feet and he buried it," Shoemaker said. "Early in the year he was hurt, and I think he's finally hitting his stride. He's a finisher."

Clarksville (9-8, 4-4 5A/6A District 1) got a goal back with a little more than 31 minutes remaining when Aye Paw scored, but the red-and-black Panthers couldn't add an equalizer.

"It was a good game," said Clarksville coach Bryan Qualls. "We know how good Siloam is. We just have to play flawless. It wasn't good enough tonight."

It was the third time Siloam Springs and Clarksville have played this season. Clarksville beat Siloam Springs 3-2 in penalty kicks after a scoreless regulation on March 11 in the River Valley Cup in Van Buren. Siloam Springs turned around and won at Clarksville 2-1 on April 11.

Shoemaker said not having Crenshaw -- who was not allowed to be in the stadium -- was a big deal for the boys on Thursday night.

"They saw him having to walk off the field and leave the stadium as they were warming up," Shoemaker said. "I think that was kind of a rallying point. Like I said, one thing with this team, the effort will always be there. I'd go to hell and back with these kids because I know they would fight through a wall. But on that same regard, I think they felt, coach isn't here, let's try to pull it out, grind it out. Those types of grind-it-out wins are going to come in handy the next couple of weeks for conference and state."

Shoemaker admitted to some pre-game butterflies in regards to coaching the boys. He finished out the Russellville game on April 20 when Crenshaw was ejected and the Panthers leading 1-0. Russellville came back to tie the game and eventually won in penalty kicks.

"I hadn't felt this nervous probably since state finals of last year," Shoemaker said. "I didn't want to let coach down. I know I put a lot of weight on my shoulders last time we dropped it at Russellville. I know some things were out of my control, but I really wanted that for him and definitely for those seniors. Every year you always want this for them."

Siloam Springs (15-5-1, 6-2 5A/6A District 1) earned the No. 2 seed in the 6A-West Conference Tournament, which was moved back to start Monday because of inclement weather on Saturday. Siloam Springs will host No. 7 seed Greenwood around 7 p.m. at Panther Stadium.

Siloam Springs defeated Greenwood 5-1 on March 16 and 2-0 at Greenwood on April 18.