The tickets to the 5A championship game have been punched.
Wasatch and Skyline each won their respective semifinal matches Tuesday afternoon at Herriman High School and will find themselves playing each other Friday at Rio Tinto. Wasatch beat Maple Mountain 2-1 in overtime and Skyline defeated defending champion Brighton 3-1.
Heading into the games, each team was facing a fellow region opponent, and each team had a record of 1-1 in the regular season against the team that they were facing.
But after Tuesday’s games, Skyline and Wasatch improved those 1-1 records to 2-1.
Wasatch 2, Maple Mountain 1 (OT)
Although the Wasatch Wasps will be playing for the title Friday, that opportunity didn’t come easily.
The Wasps got the opening goal after 56 minutes of back-and-forth play that saw a small handful of threatening attacks. Gabe Manning flicked a lofting ball toward Carter Davis, who passed the ball into the net.
As the final minutes approached, Wasatch was holding onto its one-goal lead tightly and it appeared that the Wasps were going to secure the win.
But with two minutes remaining, Maple Mountain’s Addison Allen booted a free kick from just short of midfield that soared in the air and dropped into the goal after possibly being manipulated by the gusting Herriman wind.
The ball hit the top crossbar and bounced down on the ground before being corralled by goalkeeper Elder Gutierrrez, who claimed it didn’t cross the goal line. After deliberating with each other, the officials ruled that it was a goal.
“It was a little frustrating when they scored,” Wasatch head coach Jared Hendry said.
The decision to call it a goal resulted in an overtime period that didn’t end up lasting too long.
The Wasps were awarded a penalty kick just three minutes into overtime, which Edgar Garcia slotted home to seal the win.
Here’s a look at the sudden death, penalty kick goal by Edgar Garcia in overtime that sent the Wasatch Wasps into the 5A state championship game. pic.twitter.com/WtbztCeBuP
— Tyler Haslam (@TylerHaslam_) May 26, 2021
Hendry said that his players created the motivation that sparked the quick bounceback in extra time after conceding the equalizer.
“They came off at the end of (regulation) and were like, ‘We got this guys. We’re just going to go play our game, attack them and put a goal in real quick and be able to walk off the field as winners,’” Hendry said of his players. “The boys said that. We, as coaches, just stood back and let the boys say that.”
After Garcia scored the game-winning goal, he tore off his jersey and was swarmed by his teammates as they celebrated the opportunity they would have to compete for Wasatch’s first state championship since 2013.
“I’m so excited for these boys to be able to play on that stage and to have the opportunity for each of them to play at Rio Tinto,” Hendry said while acting almost giddy. “We’ll let them celebrate today and we’ll get to it tomorrow and be ready to go on Friday.”
Skyline 3, Brighton 1
The second semifinal game on Tuesday didn’t go as far down to the wire as the one that preceded it.
In fact, through the first 14 minutes of the game, it looked as though the game was heading for a blowout, as the Eagles scored all three of their goals within that 14 minute time period.
Skyline’s Ben Howarth volleyed in the opening goal off of a corner kick in the fourth minute. Then, just three minutes later, Cache Zacharopoulos found Caden Kennedy on a pull back pass and Kennedy bended the ball into the goal with his right foot to make it 2-0.
Riley Liston added insult to injury in the 14th minute when he blasted a shot from outside the penalty area and soared in with such great pace that Brighton’s keeper struggled to handle the shot even though it was aimed right at him. The ball creeped just past the goal line and the officials ruled that it was a goal.
“We’ve played Brighton twice and we know that they’re a good team, so we knew we had to come out and play good because we wanted to make it to Rio Tinto,” Howarth said when asked about the quick start. “We just executed perfectly.”
To Brighton’s credit, it didn’t reduce its effort levels despite falling down 3-0 so quickly. The Bengals created many chances to get themselves on the board and Cameron Neeley finally cashed in on those chances with a skipping shot that snuck into the back of the net in the 51st minute.
The goal would end up being the last of the day, as the Eagles defended to maintain their two-goal margin until the final whistle.
“It means a lot,” Howarth said. “We’ve always had that goal of going to Rio Tinto and it’s just always been a dream to play there, so now that that’s coming true, it’s a surreal feeling.”
The final semifinal win of Tuesday now sets the stage for the No. 10-seeded Skyline Eagles to face the No. 1-seeded Wasatch Wasps on Friday at Rio Tinto at 4 p.m.
from Deseret News https://ift.tt/3yEJ1c3
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