Springdale High's boys are piling up shutouts in 7A-West Conference play, and that brings a smile on coach D.J. Beeler's face.

The Red'Dogs never allowed Bentonville West any serious scoring opportunities and came away with a 4-0 victory over the Wolverines during Tuesday's match at Wolverine Stadium. It's the third shutout in as many league games for Springdale, which improved its overall mark to 8-1.

"We've really hung our hat on that during conference play," Beeler said. "We're proud of that, and I'm proud of way our guys played defense and pay attention to that side of the ball.

"That's important when you come out with a slow start, which happens from time to time. If you can defend well and keep yourself from going down a goal, you can get things corrected."

Springdale found scoring difficult through the first 30 minutes as clean shots at goal were difficult to find. That all changed with Salvador Gonzalez scored the first of his goals, nailing a kick from inside the box past West goalkeeper Jose Garcia and into the left side of the goal with 5 minutes, 28 seconds before halftime.

The Red'Dogs then picked up momentum and made it a 2-0 halftime when Jose Vega scored with 2:39 remaining. Manuel Soto continued the scoring when he hit his goal at the 37:43 mark of the second half, then Gonzalez struck again with his second goal 13 minutes later.

"When they got their first goal, we were defending a lot of the time but defending well and holding our own," said West coach John Marshall, whose team fell to 3-6-1 overall and 0-3 in 7A-West play. "When that first goal went in, we starting losing some of our defensive shape.

"They kept putting pressure on us. They got a great goal down the middle, which hurt us. In the second half, we didn't come out as strong as I hoped we would. I think our legs were getting tired because we were defending so much."
