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.