By Graham Thomas
Staff Writer n [email protected]
Goals came in bunches on Thursday for the Siloam Springs boys soccer team.
The Panthers scored three goals in the first half and a whopping five in the second to rout former 5A-West rival Harrison 8-1 in a nonconference match at Panther Stadium.
It was Siloam Springs' fifth straight victory.
Two of Siloam Springs' three goals in the first half were scored by Ricardo Aguilar, and the Panthers' leading scorer added to his total in the second half with a third goal for the hat trick.
Aguilar, who has a team-high 18 goals, also had two assists in the win over the Goblins.
"Like I said, he does things that I haven't coached," said Siloam Springs head coach Brent Crenshaw. "He's a special player. He's spent a lot of time with the ball. You can tell. He's a very creative player."
Jacob Perdomo, Aldair Umana, Eli Jackson, Jose Serrano and Ethan Rush also scored single goals for the Panthers (11-5).
Perdomo's goal came less than two minutes into the game off an Aguilar assist.
Aguilar then made it 2-0 with an unassisted goal in the ninth minute of play.
In the 23rd minute, Aguilar scored off an Umana assist for a 3-0 lead the Panthers carried into halftime.
Umana scored his 10th goal of the second in the 54th minute and would later add another assist for his team-leading 12th on the year.
"Our possession has gotten better," Crenshaw said. "We've continued to work on our possession play from the defense to the midfield. Then when our attacking players get the ball, we want them to take players on 1-v-1. Aldair and Ricardo did that tonight."
Rush scored off a header on a corner kick for a 5-0 lead and Aguilar's third goal in the 56th minute made it 6-0. With the six-goal lead, the remaining 24 minutes were sliced in half via the sportsmanship rule.
"They are a solid offensive team that will make a run at a state title this year," said Harrison coach Chris Pratt.
Serrano scored with 11:20 remaining to make it 7-0.
The Goblins (4-9-1) got a goal from Henrique Fraccaroli to make it 7-1, but the Panthers answered back with a goal from Eli Jackson with 5:47 remaining to set the final score.
Siloam Springs returns to action on Friday in an important 7A/6A-Central match against 6A Greenwood. Siloam Springs defeated Greenwood 3-0 earlier this season.
"That's a big game for us," Crenshaw said. "Friday night is going to be senior night, so there will be a lot of emotions and distractions. We've got to make sure we focus on our goals."
Sports on 04/24/2016