Tigers fall to Harding in state semis

Green Forest coach Eric Perez said before the Class 3A boys state soccer tournament began that if the Tigers faced Harding Academy in the semifinals, the winner would go on to claim the state championship.

Perez still believes that prediction will come true, but it won’t be the Tigers hoisting the first-place trophy.

Harding Academy defeated Green Forest 3-0 in the state semifinals Saturday afternoon in Harrison, ending the Tigers’ bid for a second consecutive state title and avenging a 2-0 loss in last year’s state title game.

“We took it like it was the final,” said Perez, who was a starter for Green Forest’s 2014 team that won a Class 4A state championship and then coached the Tigers to the Class 3A crown last year in his first season as their head coach. “Harding took it like it was the final. In my opinion, it kind of was. You could tell Harding took it that way because of the way they celebrated. They knew that was the game.”

Green Forest had two early scoring opportunities, but couldn’t capitalize.

“I think if we score at least one of them, it changes the game,” Perez said.

The Tigers’ younger players struggled a bit adjusting to the pressure of a state semifinal game, Perez said.

“I think they were nervous because they’d never been on that big stage,” he said.

In the end, though, Perez said Harding Academy was simply the better team.

“The main thing was they were just bigger and faster than us,” Perez said. “I think that was the difference.”

Green Forest finished 19-3 and had a 16-game winning streak snapped in the loss to Harding Academy. The Tigers cruised into the semifinal round, defeating Cave City 5-0 in a first-round game last Thursday before blasting Episcopal Collegiate 10-2 in a second-round game on Friday.

The Tigers led Cave City 1-0 at halftime before scoring four times in the second half to turn the game into a rout.

Diego Martinez scored twice for Green Forest, while Pablo Leon, Elvin Montoya and Gabriel Holland had one goal apiece.

Green Forest raced to a 5-1 halftime lead in its quarterfinal game against Episcopal Collegiate, a Little Rock private school. Izaak Merida had two of his three goals before intermission, with Martinez also scoring two goals in the first half. The Tigers’ other first-half goal came from Leon.

It was more of the same in the second half as Merida added his third goal to complete the hat trick and Holland, Montoya, Boris Tobar and Moo Htoo each scoring once.

Harding Academy, which will face the winner of Monday night’s semifinal between Lincoln and LISA Academy in next weekend’s state championship game, likely will be bumped up to Class 4A next season based on the Arkansas Activities Association’s new “competitive equity factor.” Green Forest, on the other hand, will be back in the hunt for its third state championship — this time with some valuable experience in hand.

“It’s nice knowing that I’ve got these freshmen coming back. They got a lot of playing time this year,” Perez said. “And the sophomores. And these juniors — the class that will be seniors next year — they’re a really good class.”