Stansbury’s Archer Loertscher battles Tooele’s Xavi Tort.
Tooele’s Ethan Rogers heads the ball into the net for a goal against Stansbury last week.
Stanbury’s Tyler Hammond pushes the ball forward with Tooele’s Mason Bishop on his heels.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading...Stansbury will take its Region 7 soccer championship and a two-game winning streak into the state playoffs Saturday, May 14. The Stallions had little trouble clinching the Region 7 title last Friday with an 8-0 shellacking of Payson. Tournament brackets were to be published on Wednesday, May 11, after the print deadline for the Transcript-Bulletin.
The first three rounds of the state tournament will be played at home sites of the higher seeds. The 5A state semifinals and finals will be held May 23 and 25 at Rio Tinto Stadium.
The Region 7 title is Stansbury’s first boys soccer region title since winning a 3A region crown back in 2016.
The Stallions won a pair of shootouts in the 4A state tournament last year and advanced to the championship game against Ridgeline at Rio Tinto.
Senior keeper Devun Collins registered his 18th career shutout Friday against Payson. He has tallied nine shutouts this season.
The talented goalkeeper also scored a goal in Friday’s match. The Stallions were awarded a penalty kick in the second half and the whole team shouted for Devun to take the free kick and he connected. “It was a great moment for him,” said Stansbury coach Jacob Jones.
“We are super excited to have won region and to get a lot of scoring from multiple people on the team. It was a team effort on Friday and that is what we look for and talk about a lot throughout each year. Friday the boys shared the ball beautifully and moved together really well. Super proud and happy for them to have taken region,” the coach said.
Wyatt Barry knocked in three goals with two assists. Also scoring goals were Conner Shields, Abram Magleby, Archer Loertscher, Collins and Jacob Bromley. Magleby recorded two assists. Loertscher one, Tyler Hamond one and Carson Boone one.
Tooele lost its final game 0-3 at Hillcrest on Friday.
Final region standings: 1. Stansbury 10-2 2. Hillcrest 9-3 3. Cottonwood 8-4 4. Tooele 6-6 5. Uintah 4-8 6. Cedar Valley 3-9 7. Payson 2-10.
The Stallions defeated rival Tooele 2-1 Wednesday at Tooele. Tooele was hampered only 3 minutes into the game when a player received a red card, and the Buffaloes had to play a man down.
“It was a tough match as always, predictably unpredictable. Super happy to come away with the win. Hats off to Tooele for doing so well even being a man down. Good luck to both teams at State,” the coach said.
Stansbury scored first when Jace Toland kicked a perfect service-in and Wyatt Barry got a nice head flick to give the Stallions a 1-0 lead 10 minutes into the contest. The Stallions threatened again with about 10 seconds until intermission, but Tooele keeper Deven Randall made a great save on a close-in shot. Although a man down, Tooele played stellar defense and the score remained 1-0 at intermission. Isaac Graber got the second goal for the Stallions in the first 4 minutes of the second half after a nice centering pass from Carson Gibbons and the Stallions led 2-0.
“It was great to see Isaac on the score sheet. He has come so close so many times,” Jones said.
Tooele gained some momentum with 19 minutes left in the match. Casen Walker hit a corner kick which Ethan Rogers headed into the net to slice the lead to 2-1.
The Buffaloes came close to scoring multiple times in the final 20 minutes.
“Full credit to our players, instead of giving up, they upped the tempo and took control of the game; in the final half hour of the game, we hit their crossbar three times, scored, had two other shots on target, and another four shots off target, we also had several corners. In the same time period, I don’t remember our goalkeeper having to make a save. For 10 men who are 2-0 down, to come back and dominate the game like that is testament to our players’ grit,” said Tooele coach Stephan Duggan.
Stansbury’s coach agreed.
“We struggled to maintain control of the game. Tooele played with more energy and because of that we started getting behind the play and fouling. Too many free kicks and Devun had to come up big several times to keep the scoring at bay,” Jones said.
Tooele, as well, looks forward to the state playoffs, according to their coach.
“We certainly go into the playoffs knowing that a good run is certainly possible. Congratulations to Stansbury on their victory against us and the region championship so well done to all involved.
“Who knows, maybe the sporting Gods will smile upon us and we’ll meet again during playoffs, I’m sure there’s very few soccer fans in the valley who wouldn’t savor that. Truly, this fixture has caught the imagination of the public, there was another huge crowd at the game last week and they witnessed yet another great game between two great teams, wouldn’t a trilogy top it all off?”
