Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner
Ben Lomond’s Adilen Gil, right, stretches for the ball while pressured by St. Joseph’s Kara Sugiyama, left, during a high school girls soccer match Tuesday, Aug. 9, 2022 at Ben Lomond High School.
OGDEN — The roster for the St. Joseph High girls soccer team has two seniors, one junior, six sophomores, eight freshmen and a new head coach.
Two games into the 2022 season, the freshmen have made a mark.
In the 77th minute of Tuesday’s non-region game at Ben Lomond, freshmen Sofia Evans scored the game-winning goal off the inside of the back post to give the Jayhawks a 3-2 win in what will be their shortest drive for a road game. this year.
The ball went off a defender in the box and fell right to where Evans was running, and she hit it with the inside of her foot and sent it to the bottom corner.
“Especially with our loss to Bear River last game, I think that was a good boost for us — especially against a 3A school,” Evans said.
Seventeen players are listed on the roster and it turned out to be 14 by the end of the game. One player was sick, one picked up an injury in warmups and another got hurt during the game.
“The biggest thing is fighting,” head coach Tom Evans said. “I’ve got eight freshmen acclimating to the game. To start four of them and play 6-7 of them extensively is really awesome.”
Tuesday’s game was played on Ben Lomond’s (0-2) grass soccer field on the corner of 9th Street and Monroe Boulevard, but it was still plenty hot. Going to extra time and possibly penalties would’ve been an exhausting affair for a team as small as St. Joseph.
“Those 14 girls stood tough. We dropped one player back in the midfield to kind of take care of the midfield and actually she was the one who came out in midfield on the run that scored the third goal, so it kind of worked out that she was in the midfield playing higher up,” Evans said.
Midway through the first half as Ben Lomond controlled the game, junior Alex Chadwick took a long shot that lofted over St. Joseph’s goalkeeper Cicily Flores and into the net.
Maybe 30-45 seconds after Ben Lomond players celebrated, St. Joseph (1-1) celebrated.
The Jayhawks played down the right side of the field after the restart and Abigail Walker ran to the top of the 18-yard box where she received the ball and scored in the upper half of the goal.
St. Joseph went ahead 2-1 after a free kick into the penalty box first found Abby Gough’s foot, then ricocheted off BL goalkeeper Dory Jenson, then back to Walker, then off at least one other player before it was in the net.
The center referee did not signal a goal until moments later as the Jayhawks were unsure whether to celebrate or not. The Scots got a few good looks at goal in the next 20 minutes, but Flores made good saves each time.
Ben Lomond’s pressure resulted in a goal in the 72nd minute when a cross from the left came in and landed in an awkward spot in front of Flores. She got a hand to the ball, but it deflected behind her and BL’s Adilen Gil was there to score at the near post.
Gil reacted as if she hadn’t scored, much like the second St. Joseph goal earlier in the half, but the ref signaled a goal and then Gil celebrated the tied tally.
Ben Lomond’s grasp of momentum was short-lived as Sofia Evans scored five minutes later, sending the Scots to their second one-goal defeat in as many games to start the year.
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