Girls soccer: Brighton Bengals bury the Bingham Miners

By Mike Thomas

For the Deseret News

Published: Wednesday, Sept. 17 2014 11:20 p.m. MDT

Scoreboard »

Brighton	Bingham
4	1

Brighton's Ashley Christensen tries to hold off Bingham's Peri Hodgson. (Larry Brinkerhoff, Copyright 2013 Larry Brinkerhoff Photography)

Brighton went on the road and beat Bingham 4-1 in girls soccer on Tuesday. The Bengals jumped to an early lead when midfielder Ashley Christensen took a shot less than a minute into the game that made it past Bingham's keeper,Madison Loftus.

The Miners' defense felt Christensen was offside, but when the flag stayed down, Christensen calmly made the shot. The Miners came right back, looking to tie the game up, and earned a corner kick. During the corner kick, a Bingham player was fouled in the box by a Brighton defender, which is an automatic penalty kick. However the penalty kick was shot wide of the goal, so the Miners still trailed 1-0.

That's when Bengal forward Angie Timmtook over. With 15 minutes left in the half, using her quickness and speed, Timm sliced through the Bingham defense and took a shot from just outside the 18 that found the upper right-hand side of the goal. Then later, in the final seconds of the first half, Timm took a corner kick that bent high over the keeper and found the side netting. When the ref blew his whistle for halftime, the score was 3-0 in favor of Brighton.

The Miners came out more physical in the second half and made some great runs that put the Bengals' defense on its heals. That pressure culminated in a shot from distance by Peri Hodgson that just made it under the crossbar for the Miners' first and only goal. Brighton controlled possession of the ball for most of the second half, and had several shots on goal, but couldn't seem to score.

Brighton's final goal of the game came off a Sydney Seamons' cross that Janessa Gracia slide tackled into the back of the net for the final 4-1 score.

The Bengals' defense and midfield had another stong performance and the team looks to be in good form. The Bengals will meet the Alta Hawks at home on Thursday in a pivotal region match.