Title Tigers: Green Forest rolls to win in Class 3A boys soccer championship match
By Buck Ringgold
Photo of Class 3A boys soccer state champion Green Forest
CONWAY - For the third time this season, 3A-West conference rivals Green Forest and Haas Hall Bentonville squared off.
This latest contest was for much higher stakes, a Class 3A boys soccer championship. Haas Hall Bentonville didn’t lose to the Tigers in the regular season, having a win and a tie in the ledger.
Green Forest, though, won the ultimate rematch, as four different Tigers scored goals in a 4-1 win Saturday afternoon at Estes Stadium on the University of Central Arkansas campus.
The Tigers capped an impressive postseason in which they scored a combined 25 goals in four wins while allowing only two goals - one coming in the closing minutes of Saturday’s triumph. It also ended an impressive debut season for Adam Richter, who was elevated to head coach over the offseason after having spent the previous season as an assistant.
“We were just trying to keep up our pace; we had a really good bench coming up from eighth grade to ninth grade this year,” Richter said. “Four of our starters were freshmen (Saturday), and so we had a solid team.”
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Green Forest (16-3-2) went ahead to stay with nearly 10 minutes gone in the match on a shot from senior Izaak Merida. It had special meaning for him, because Merida suffered a severe knee injury during last week’s semifinal win against Central Arkansas Christian.
Though he admitted he was “barely less than 50 percent” afterward and really didn’t see much action after scoring that opening goal, Merida - who led the team with 22 goals - was adamant about wanting to play on Saturday.
“I hurt my meniscus in the semifinals. … I didn’t want to lose my last game, so I thought, I had to play this game; my team needed me, so I went in there, I scored (the opening goal), I did everything I could for the team,” he said. “Then I really couldn’t continue, so I came out.”
Richter noted another reason Merida’s goal came at an opportune time for his squad.
“I think usually, whenever it comes to games like these that are hard-pressed and very stressful, the first goal is very important, and getting that first goal was good for us and it kept up our morale and they were able to keep going,” Richter said.
That 1-0 lead continued to stand until halftime. Richter used that break to tell his team not to rest on their laurels.
“The same thing happened to us against CAC last Saturday; we were up 1-0 and I said, ‘Right now, it’s anybody’s ballgame; we need to come out there and keep on fighting and keep on winning every ball that we can and shooting as many shots as we can whenever we have an opening,’ because they can come back really quickly from that,” Richter said.
“It’s real easy to lose a 1-0 lead and do what they can.”
Message received.
The Tigers responded with a goal seven minutes into the second half, as Milton Ortiz received a pass from Elvin Montoya and knocked it up into the right corner.
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They made it 3-0 with more than 16 minutes left as Green Forest had numbers on a breakaway, and Eric Salazar successfully delivered. Nearly five minutes later, a shot from Edgar Duenas was on target, making it 4-0.
Green Forest goalkeeper Jesus Romero kept the shutout intact by saving a free kick attempt with less than nine minutes left. But just two minutes later, the Huskies (14-5-2) avoided that shutout on a goal from Ameen Riyas.
Though he didn’t record a goal, Montoya - a senior - was selected as the game’s MVP.
Green Forest senior Elvin Montoya (right) was named the MVP of the Class 3A championship game.
“Elvin’s been an excellent player since I’ve been at the school,” Richter said. “I’ve been at the school for three years. I kind of was a fan my first year because I wasn’t coaching and I assisted the second year, and every year, he’s impressed me.
“He’s very good, he puts everything into his performance and he’s just impressed us this year.”
Green Forest also won state for the second time in three seasons, having previously won it all in 2021. Richter will lose five seniors - four of whom were starters.
“It’s been great; I love this group of guys and I wouldn’t want to win it with anybody else,” Merida said.
Class 4A boys soccer state champion De Queen
4A Boys Soccer State Championship
De Queen 5, Dardanelle 2
Behind a hat trick from senior Edwin Baltazar, the Leopards were able to capture their seventh state title. However, it was their first crown since 2015.
“I couldn’t have done that without my teammates and without the fans, especially the ones that come out and support us the whole game. … I scored three goals, but I couldn’t have done that without my teammates,” said Baltazar, who finished the season scoring 33 goals.
Two years ago, the Leopards played for a title but lost. Baltazar was more than determined to get back and finish things off this time around.
“Me and (Gustavo Garcia, who had the Leopards’ other two goals on Saturday), we had lost the state championship two years ago as starters, so we knew how we felt and we knew how to talk to (their younger teammates), and told them not to be nervous and we told them that we could do it and anything was possible,” said Baltazar, who was named the game's MVP.
De Queen senior Edwin Baltazar was named the MVP of the Class 4A boys soccer championship game.
He and his fellow Leopard teammates also had to get used to the intricacies of the Estes Stadium field, and not necessarily the striped, purple and gray design that represent the University of Central Arkansas school colors.
“We played here when we were younger. … It’s a wide field, but we’ve played on a wide field before, so we kind of just used the sidelines to run on them and get them tired,” Baltazar said.
He had the Leopards’ first two goals, which gave them a 2-0 halftime advantage. Baltazar had his first goal 13 minutes in, and then knocked another one in off a free kick from teammate Jan Carlos Aguilar.
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De Queen (19-2) then extended its lead in the second half, as two goals from Garcia, a fellow senior, made it 4-0. Both of those goals came nearly three minutes apart.
Baltazar - who still has not decided if he will continue his soccer career playing at a college - then got his hat trick with nearly 15 minutes left, scoring to give the Leopards a 5-0 lead.
“I think the first (goal was my favorite), because it helped us to be more comfortable with the field, especially because it’s like a new field and it helped get the team more comfortable playing (on the surface),” he said.
Dardanelle (14-6-1) scored its only two goals within the game’s final eight minutes, courtesy of Alex Campos and Jhoan Bonilla.
