Farmington holds off Clarksville, 4-3, to clinch Arkansas 4A boys soccer championship

By Buck Ringgold | Photos by Ted McClenning 

BENTON — In the midst of a wild, back-and-forth second half for the 4A boys soccer title, Farmington senior forward Mateo Carbonel made a vow.

Moments after Clarksville had tied the score at 3-3, Carbonel emphatically told his teammates he was going to get momentum back on the Cardinals’ side for good.

Carbonel made good on his promise, scoring the game-winning goal on a shot in the box with 9:01 left which went over Clarksville's keeper and underneath the crossbar as the Cardinals finally held off the Panthers, 4-3, Saturday at the Benton Athletic Complex.

“Whenever they tied it up, our whole team dropped their heads and I ran back there and I got on to them and I said, ‘I’m going to put one in for you guys,’ and I’m big on words, so when I say I’m going to do something, I’m going to do it,” Carbonel said.

“I put it in the goal for our team and I told them to keep their heads high, keep looking at the goals, keep looking at the goals.”

Then the Cardinals held off a late flurry of Clarksville shot attempts, with Farmington senior goalkeeper Steven Gomez making some key saves. Gomez, who previously played at Clarksville, was named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

It was also sweet revenge for Gomez, who lost to the Panthers, 3-0, in the title game of the 4A-West Conference tournament.

“I’m so proud of that kid; he’s a senior, a two-year starter,” Farmington coach Josh Fonville said. “He’s from Clarksville, so he has a history.

“He struggled when we were at Clarksville in the conference championship match but man, he overcame that. I told him at the end of (Saturday), I promise you this, it’s going to be sweet for you because I knew if he played well at all (Saturday), he’s our MVP.”

Saturday’s win also capped a championship for Farmington (13-2-3) in just its second season as a soccer program. Fonville, an assistant for the Cardinals’ football team, was also in his first season as coach, having taken over on an interim basis right before the season started.

“Going into the season, being an interim coach, being a football guy and being asked to take on this role, it has been one of the best experiences I’ve ever had as a coach and I’m just proud of them,” Fonville said.

The Cardinals controlled things in the opening half, taking a 2-0 lead on goals from Drew White off a throw-in from Carbonel, as well as a shot by Ettore Bocchi from just outside the box.

But Clarksville (20-2-1) quickly answered in the early goings of the second half, scoring two goals within the first six minutes of play from Blay See and Cody Qualls.

“We told them we have been in this situation before; we haven’t had a lot of goals scored on us but we knew it wasn’t going to be easy,” Clarksville coach Bryan Qualls said. “It was a tough matchup, but we told them, ‘You can’t quit now.’

“We tried to get our seniors to lead a little bit; the second half, they came out and it looked a lot different the first five to 10 minutes of the second half.”

Farmington regained the lead with more than 25 minutes left when Jorge Cervantes successfully executed a free kick from 29 yards away.

Just under 11 minutes to go, off a deflected Clarksville corner kick, Cody Qualls grabbed the rebound and made the shot from nearly 15 yards out, tying it at 3-all.

But it turned out that deadlock was short-lived, thanks to the play from Carbonel.

“We had started dropping an extra guy back, and once they tied it, I told one of my assistants, ‘Let’s push him back up,’” Fonville said. “The majority of our goals, especially in the playoffs, have been a kick ahead, and it’s either been a ricochet or an open goal look, and literally that’s what we did.

“We had beaten two defenders as we were coming by from Jose Cervantes; he kicked ahead, and we got the goalie out just a little bit and we knocked it in with Mateo. Mateo has done that, he leads our team in goals, I think that’s 13 for him now, and I think eight of those have been in those exact situations.”

Carbonel was then the first player to grab the championship trophy when it was being awarded postgame.

“A good handful of us have been playing for six or seven years now, and our ultimate goal was to always win a state championship,” he said. “The school finally made a soccer team, and so we finally found our opportunity and we took it and honestly, we’re out of our minds right now.”