By Kai Raymer (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Two days removed from a home loss filled with missed scoring chances, the Laquey Hornets made sure that wouldn’t happen again.
Laquey responded to an early 1-0 deficit by scoring three goals within 30 minutes, including a last-second score just before halftime that pushed its lead to 3-1.
The Hornets held off Fair Grove in the second half for an eventual 4-2 victory on Thursday in Springfield.
“We just had a little talk after we got scored on. We knew we had to get our heads (in the game), because that’s what happened to us against Greenwood,” said Hornets senior Brandon MacDonald. “We went down early – by two goals – and couldn’t come back then.”
Sam Urban had two goals for Laquey, but it was MacDonald’s assist to Skyler Eidem in the waning seconds of the first half that proved to be the back breaker for Fair Grove.
MacDonald won possession in the box, spun, then lofted a pass to the far post for the easy tap-in by Eidem.
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“My buddy played a ball through to me and I normally have someone at the back post, so I just thought to flick it over there and hope someone would be there,” MacDonald said. “(Skyler) put it away and gave us a bigger lead before the half.”
Seconds from trailing 2-1 at halftime, Fair Grove instead had a 3-1 deficit.
“Those goals hurt,” said Eagles coach Joe Florez. “You have to start and finish halves strong.”
Fair Grove jumped on Laquey early with a goal from leading scorer Maicol Newkirk. The Eagles thought they could’ve had more in the opening minutes.
“Honestly, we had a great (scoring) chance a minute into the game, so we really felt like it should’ve been 2-0 after (Newkirk’s) goal,” Florez said. “You’re not going to score 100 percent of your chances, but you have to put some away.”
MacDonald scored around the 15th minute to tie the match, then Laquey later went up for good when Urban scored to make it 2-1. A defender blocked Urban’s initial shot, but the rebound came right back to Urban and he blasted a second try through.
Urban stretched Laquey’s lead to 4-1 in the second half. Kyle Stacey added a second Fair Grove goal in the final minutes of the match.
Laquey improved to 4-1 overall. In Tuesday’s home loss to Greenwood, the Hornets scored only one goal on 16 second-half shot attempts. They also missed a potential game-tying penalty kick in the final minutes of the match.
“Greenwood was a tough loss. We didn’t take that one very well,” said Laquey coach Tyler Sevon. “We couldn’t finish very well in the second half. It was nice to bounce back today and get a win against a good Fair Grove team.”
Fair Grove dropped to 3-3-1 overall. The Eagles, who dropped down to Class 1 this season, are implementing several new players into their rotation.
“We tend to make a lot of newbie errors right now. Somewhat for good reason: we have a lot of players who are new to the sport,” Florez said. “But (Laquey) finished the first half strong and we made some errors. They capitalized on them throughout the game.”
Fair Grove returns to action next week with three games in three days: Sept. 11 at Cassville, Sept. 12 vs. Parkview and Sept. 13 vs. Stover.
Laquey visits New Covenant Academy on Sept. 11 in a potential Class 1 state quarterfinal preview.
