High school soccer: Brighton tops region foe Alta for first time since 2010, earns share of region title
Scoreboard »
| Brighton | Alta |
| 4 | 2 |
Such was the case Thursday afternoon, as the Bengals went to Alta’s home field and walked away with a 4-2 victory to stun the first-place Hawks and take a piece of the Region 3 trophy back to Cottonwood Heights.
“You can’t match the energy of a Brighton-Alta game. It’s always just phenomenal,” Brighton head coach Mark Stoker said. “They have a phenomenal squad and they bring high intensity every game, so we knew we had to come with everything we’ve got, and today we did that.”
Brighton (13-2-1, 9-1-0) came out and hit the ground running, putting Alta (14-2-0, 9-1-0) up against the ropes with its high intensity and urgency to take an early lead.
After a couple of missed shot attempts, the suffocating Brighton defense led to some offense as the Bengals scored twice in under five minutes. Senior Angie Timmand junior Rachel Powley each found twine to open up a 2-0 edge with less than 20 minutes left in the half.
“It’s unbelievable what they were able to do today,” Stoker said of his team’s defensive performance. “We put a lot of pressure on their back line, and our defense continued to step up every single time. It was huge for our offense.”
Alta finally started to find a rhythm and was able to cut its deficit in half off a last-second goal in stoppage time just before the break.
Then, in the 69th minute, junior striker Meghan Walkerstole the ball from a Brighton defender, made a couple of moves, and sent the ball into the back of the net to tie things up at 2-2.
After watching their two-goal lead slip through their fingertips, the Bengals quickly regrouped before showing the Hawks exactly why they are the 5A defending champs.
In the 73rd minute, Powley scored her second goal of the day, followed by senior Sydney Seamons’ score in stoppage time, preserving the 4-2 win and a piece of the region title for the blue and orange. It was the Bengals’ first victory over the Hawks since 2010.
“It feels awesome,” Timm said of the win. “We haven’t beat them in several years, so this feels amazing to finally beat them. We really worked hard as a team and we deserve it.”
With the win, Brighton secured the No. 1 seed out of Region 3 and picked up some much-needed momentum to help defend its crown heading into the 5A tournament.
“You always want to have the train at the top of the hill at the end of the season running into the playoffs, and I think it’s going in the right direction,” added Stoker. “We just need to keep pursuing the goals we have and take it one step at a time.”
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