Stansbury senior Kolton Loertscher (8) jockeys for position during Tuesday’s Class 4A boys soccer state championship game against Ridgeline at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy. Ridgeline, the No. 11 seed, defeated No. 8 Stansbury 2-1.
Stansbury senior Max Rouffignac (10) chases down a loose ball during Tuesday’s Class 4A state championship boys soccer match against Ridgeline at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy. Rouffignac tied the game in the second half with his 12th goal of the season, but Ridgeline scored late to beat the Stallions 2-1.
Stansbury junior Carson Gibbons (16) and Ridgeline’s Gabe Watson (21) battle during Tuesday’s Class 4A state championship boys soccer match at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy. Watson scored the game-winning goal for the Riverhawks.
The Stansbury boys soccer team shows off its second-place trophy after a hard-fought 2-1 loss to Ridgeline in the Class 4A state championship game Tuesday at Rio Tinto Stadium in Sandy. The Stallions made their first-ever appearance in the title game, reaching the final round as a No. 8 seed.
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Loading...In a battle of two Cinderella teams, the Stansbury boys soccer team’s clock finally struck midnight in Tuesday night’s Class 4A state championship game at Rio Tinto Stadium.
The eighth-seeded Stallions stood just 10 minutes from going into extra time against No. 11 Ridgeline, with the title match deadlocked at 1-1. However, Riverhawks sophomore Gabe Watson converted on a feed from teammate Ethan Green in the 70th minute, scoring the decisive goal in Ridgeline’s 2-1 victory.
Ridgeline (13-7) led 1-0 at halftime after Grady Workman’s goal in the 24th minute, but Stansbury (13-5) pulled even on a tally by Max Rouffignac early in the second half. That set the stage for the dramatic finish on the home turf of Major League Soccer’s Real Salt Lake, a stage the Stallions had never reached before Tuesday’s contest.
Remarkably, Tuesday’s match marked just the fourth time this season that Stansbury allowed multiple goals in a single game — and only the second against a fellow Class 4A squad. The Stallions allowed 15 goals in 17 games, including nine shutouts.
Rouffignac’s goal was his 12th of the season, second-most on the team behind fellow senior Kolton Loertscher’s 13.
