Lone goal lifts Owasso past Bentonville West

CENTERTON -- For Bentonville West, Friday's soccer match was more of the same old thing. In a season in which the Wolverines have been competitive in each of their three losses only to allow late scores, Friday was a repeat performance, as they allowed the only score of the match in the 49th minute to drop a 1-0 decision to Owasso, Okla., in Wolverine Stadium. "It's been lapses," West coach John Marshall said. "We play well. We maintain the ball well at times, and we play well defensively at times, and then it's just lapses. Somebody will fall asleep defensively and we'll get a goal scored on us." On Friday, that goal came late. Jaden Bhinhar, who had several chances on goal throughout the match only to be denied by the Wolverines, finally found a soft spot in the defense, by putting a shot past West keeper Evan Guentz. "The (Owasso) defender received the ball, opened up and hit a diagonal ball to (Bhinhar) running in from the backside," Marshall said. "That's something we've talked about over and over and that is what they did. I thought we did a good job of defending that, but then we just had that lapse." West had opportunities to tie the score in the waning moments. With 27 seconds remaining, a Wolverine header, which was deflected over the cross-bar by the Owasso keeper, resulted in a corner-kick for West, which was wide right of the goal as time expired. Guentz made six saves on the night, including a nice one inside the keeper's box after Owasso's Christian Johnson beat West's defense for wide-open run on goal. "That one-one one was huge," Marshall said. "Evan Guentz has been coming up big for us, and he's only a freshman." With the loss, West falls to 1-3-1 on the season. West opens 7A-West Conference play Tuesday by hosting Van Buren.

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LONE GOAL LIFTS OWASSO PAST BENTONVILLE WEST

JOSH TINKER

Arkansas Online | 3/10/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Bentonville West Athletics