The Southside Mavericks were still feeling the effects Monday of last Friday’s brutal shootout loss to Northside.

The Conway Wampus Cats made the most of two goals, one each by Evan Trimble and Brooks Thomason, in a 2-0 victory at Southside’s Rowland Stadium.

Conway needed to play the match, and win it, to preserve the No. 1 seed in the 7A-Central — one they nearly lost when the Mavericks blew a late lead last Friday.

Conway, which had beaten Bryant in a shootout earlier Friday, actually had no plans to be at Southside on Monday.

The game, which was rescheduled following a tornado warning two weeks ago, had to be played by rule, Conway coach Matthew Page said.

Conway and Northside split during the regular season, but because the Grizzlies owned the tie-breaker, the Wampus Cats needed to win the game to stay ahead of the Mavericks.

“This is the first one (conference title) we’ve had since these guys were sophomores,” Page said. “Every senior plays; we’ve got 10 guys and they all play. They all give us big minutes, and its the first time I’ve been able to do that.”

Conway (18-2, 12-2), took a 1-0 lead on Trimble’s first-half goal with about 33 minutes left in the first half.

Southside keeper Salomon Amador was solid in the loss, turning away one potential shot after another.


But when Thomasson scored with about 20 minutes left in the match, the Mavericks seemed to wilt in the hot May afternoon.

Southside had a couple of scoring chances, including a shot with 11 minutes left when Alex Mendoza’s laser hit the top of the bar.

“I slept on it (the loss) the other night,” Mendoza said. “It was pretty hard. Our legs were pretty tired from the other night.

“Now, we just look forward to going into the playoffs.”

Southside (6-13, 5-9) will play Fayetteville on Thursday at noon in Rogers.

“We just have to play our game and come out strong and aggressive,” Mendoza said.
