Waterford leaves lasting mark on 2A

PROVO — Waterford's boys soccer team concluded its lone foray into Class 2A Saturday evening.

The highly-respected private school in Sandy played in 3A for years before 2A was created this season, and the Ravens will be moving back up to 3A next year.

My, what a mark they leave on the classification they're departing from.

Against fourth-ranked Rowland Hall in the inaugural 2A state final, No. 2 Waterford stormed to the championship. The Ravens blitzed Rowland Hall for two goals inside 20 minutes, and the quality of their collective first-half performance was sensational.

Waterford added a third goal late in the second half, and it emerged with a 3-0 win over the Winged Lions at Timpview High.

"It's sweet," said senior midfielder Spencer Linsley, who scored Waterford's opening goal in the ninth minute. "I've been thinking about this game the whole season. I knew it was going to come down to this, and I knew it was our game. We were the team.

"All we needed to do was play our game," Linsley added, "and that's what we did...There was nothing they could do to compete with us."

Saturday's win marked Waterford's second boys' soccer championship in school history.

Rowland Hall beat Waterford once and led during the second half of another meeting when the two teams squared off during the regular season.

The Winged Lions played very hard and really didn't disappoint in the final, but once Waterford got rolling, there was nothing they could do.

Waterford pelted Rowland Hall's goal from the opening whistle, and it jumped ahead 1-0 when Linsley majestically headed in a Chris Biscupovich corner at the far post.

Just over 11 minutes later, Jonathan Orr doubled Waterford's lead. From there, the Ravens possessed the ball extremely well and played terrific soccer for the rest of the half.

"That was a treat for me to watch them in the first half," said coach Bob Capener.

Waterford, under the direction of Capener and assistant Kent Hercules, has produced some outstanding teams down the years, including the Class 3A champion in 2003 and the 3A runner-up in 2005.

How does this bunch stack up with the others?

"Hard to answer that," said Capener. "The way they played in the first half, that's real good soccer against a good team. I don't think I've seen my teams play — even some of my better teams — a better half. I think it was on par with some of the better halves we've ever played, just because we came from everywhere.

"They tried to adjust, but we hit them from a lot of different places."

Waterford couldn't quite get back up to full steam after halftime, but its defense played well and kept Rowland Hall off the board. And Nick Moreira sealed the win when he scored in the 65th minute.

For his part, Rowland Hall coach Bobby Kennedy praised the effort of his players and heaped praise on Waterford.

"They're classy through and through," he said.

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E-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com

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