Van Buren boys have solid showing at River Valley Cup

Although Van Buren didn’t win the River Valley Cup on its home field, its coach still took away plenty of positives. The Pointers finished the tournament on a high note, getting a late goal to post a 1-0 win against Putnam City (Okla.) for third place Saturday at Blakemore Field. “I’m really proud of our effort, we got two wins here with beating Russellville and Putnam City West, both quality teams so we played well,” Van Buren coach Nathan Almond said. “We lost to Bishop Kelley, which is one of the top 5A schools over in Oklahoma, so they’re definitely a quality program. “That 2-0 loss (to Bishop Kelley), you never want to lose, but I felt like we played hard and we played well, so overall it was a good tournament for us.” Bishop Kelley then played Clarksville for the championship. The game was decided on penalty kicks, with Clarksville winning it 5-3, as senior Baby Soe had the clinching kick moments after teammate Paw Htoo’s kick broke a 3-all tie. Van Buren (4-3-2) played Putnam City West to a scoreless tie in the first half of its game Saturday. It appeared to be more of the same in the second half. But sophomore forward Isaac Delafuente got a pass from teammate Josue Recinos, and was able to deliver a breakaway goal with 5:27 remaining. “Isaac has got a nose for the goal,” Almond said. “He’s got some things that you can’t coach, he just knows how to go score, and Josue played a perfect ball from a distance and Isaac got a nice little chip on it and just played it over the top of that keeper and it was just a good play.” Related More high school soccer The Pointers then held off PCW down the stretch, including a big stop in the final minute from sophomore defender Chris Flores. Senior Rodolfo Fraire got the shutout playing goalkeeper. “We had to battle for it; Putnam was playing hard, but we found some possession in the second half,” Almond said. “We were very direct in the first half and talked about it at halftime, and we did a nice job of trying to work it from one sideline to the other, open their defense up a little bit and gave us a chance to punch one in, so it was a good win for us.” Van Buren will begin 7A-West conference play this upcoming week with home games Tuesday against Bentonville West and Thursday against Bentonville.

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Van Buren High School Athletics

VAN BUREN BOYS HAVE SOLID SHOWING AT RIVER VALLEY CUP

BUCK RINGGOLD

Times Record | 3/11/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: Jamie Mitchell