FAYETTEVILLE -- Bennett Moehring dropped his free kick into the area he calls the "danger zone" and hoped a Bentonville teammate could make a play off of it.

It didn't happen that way, but the Tigers still enjoyed the end result.

Moehring's kick was first touched by Fort Smith Northside defender Luis Iturriaga, who deflected the ball into his team's own goal, and that was all the Tigers needed in a 1-0 victory Saturday as Bentonville claimed its second conseutive Class 7A state championship at Razorback Field.

"I'll take it, that's for sure," Bentonville Coach Mike Devaney said. "We said all week that whoever got the first goal and got their noses in front, that would be pivotal to the game. That certainly proved the case.

"We had decent service. If we can get decent service in the box, it's up to us to get on the end of it. It's certainly up to them to get the ball cleared, and they didn't do it. We've had a bit of good fortune, but if you look at the game, I think we definitely deserved to win."

Moehring's kick came with about 11 minutes left in regulation. The senior defender was closer to midfield than the goal when he made the free kick.

The ball was intended for senior Josh Howard, but Iturriaga was the one who had the header on the play. The ball, however, went the wrong way and nestled into the left side of the net.

"Josh was calling for the ball, and him and I have a connection on free kicks," Moehring said. "I know what he's going to do, and he knows what I'm going to do with the ball.

"I landed it right at the [penalty kick] spot, and Coach always tells me to get it into the danger area. If I do that, good things happen. I was trying to find Josh's head but, hey, we'll take a goal with however it works."

The goal came moments after Northside (12-5) made its most serious scoring threat of the game. Angel Parga made his way inside the right corner of the box and fired toward the goal, but Bentonville goalkeeper Ben Barron made a diving stop and deflected the ball away.

The ball rolled toward the right of the goal, and it would have been the Grizzlies' ball had the ball continued to roll out of bounds. Instead, a Northside player kicked the ball which hit the outside of the net on the right side, giving Bentonville (18-2) the ball on a goal kick to set up the score.

"Missed chances in this game, they can come back to haunt you," Northside Coach Maricio Maciel said. "That could have been our goal. Then it would have been us defending it, and we would have defended it well. Whoever scored that one goal was going to sit back and defend it and try to run the clock out.

"I really liked our chances had we been able to get the ball into overtime and eventually penalty kicks."
