BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner
Roy’s Mikynlee Cragun (24) pursues the ball in a season-opening girls soccer match against Ben Lomond on Tuesday, Aug. 2, 2022, in Roy. (BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner)
ROY — No matter what the state tournament playoff format has been over the years, 2022 sees the Roy High girls soccer team in one of its best postseason positions ever.
After riding unbeaten through Region 2 for a second straight year, the Royals got the No. 4 seed in the state tournament bracket, rewarded with a first-round bye, and now preparing to host a second-round home at 6 pm Tuesday against No. 13 Riverton.
The first-round bye gave Roy a full week to prepare for the second-round game, a unique luxury for the school’s girls soccer program.
Last year’s region-winning team didn’t get a first-round bye (it was one spot away in the RPI). Neither did the school’s team that won the state title in 1997 at Lindquist Field, nor did the 1995 region-winning team.
“I think there are pros and cons to having a bye week,” Roy head coach Alyssa Foutz said. “It’s a long time to go without a game, but it allows us to get refocused and to work on things before we go into the last part of the season.”
This year’s Roy team has a 13-3 record and a familiar personality to anyone who knows Roy High sports teams.
“I think we are a typical Roy team, yeah, and I think we say that with pride. We are just a gritty bunch of hard-working kids who just show up and try and find a way,” Foutz said.
Roy’s players made it a goal at the beginning of the season to win an unbeaten Region 2 championship again, specifically the unbeaten part of that.
From the jump, this season was tougher for the Royals than 2021. Just three starters returned from 2021 which made the early-season learning curve somewhat steep but, as Foutz indicated, they’ve found a way to win games no matter if it’s 2 -0 or in the second period of extra time.
“I feel like when we play well it’s mostly not really about soccer, but it’s about our team bonding and how we’re talking to each other on the field and noticing people’s accomplishments and all that,” senior Essence Burrus said. “Obviously soccer’s a little bit a part of it, but I feel like our team chemistry has a big part to do with how we play.”
Their first region game finished 0-0 and went to a penalty shootout against West, where Roy won. Two weeks later, Burrus scored a golden goal to beat Hunter 3-2.
The next game, the Royals beat Kearns 1-0 — the same Kearns team that Roy later beat on Sept. 29 in extra time to clinch the back-to-back unbeaten regional championship.
“It’s just an amazing feeling knowing that we’ve put in so much hard work into our season and it just came with a great outcome. Everyone contributed,” senior midfielder Allee Leishman said.
The ‘everyone contributed’ part of what Leishman said is something Foutz also pointed out. Roy has fairly balanced scoring on his team, with five players having scored six or more goals this year, according to statistics that have been reported to the Standard-Examiner.
“I feel like every girl has had a critical moment, and a crucial moment in each of those games,” Foutz said. “Some of those games end up being the game-winning goal, some of those games end up being a save, every girl really has had an opportunity to step up and show their stuff and that doesn’t always happen in every situation.”
Region 2 teams haven’t fared well lately in the playoffs, including the five others who played first-round games last week getting knocked out of the tournament. That leaves Roy as the sole remaining team from Region 2.
The deck is already stacked against Region 2 teams in the playoffs as it is, so Roy having the No. 4 seed in the RPI represents an equitable outcome from the Royals’ successful regular season that gives them a fair swing in the state tournament.
Riverton is the defending 6A state champion and although the Silverwolves (10-7) are a different team than 2021, they’re going to be a tough out.
To that effect, Foutz said the “bye” week would be a heavy week of practice since it’s the only thing Roy could control.
“I wouldn’t say individually I have the top 18 girls in the state on my varsity team. We’re not pretending that we have every best girl that there is out there, but I believe that if we play the way that we play that my team,” Foutz said, stressing the word ‘team’ — “they can be just as good as any other team, if not better.”
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at [email protected], Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.
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