High school soccer: Bengals shine brightly against Lone Peak

COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS — Brighton's soccer team has some of the brightest — if not the brightest — stars in the state.

From reigning 5A MVP Austin Nate in the middle to fantastic stopper Jordan Hatanaka right behind him to Thomas Loomis up top — among others — the Bengals have an incredible array of leading talent.

But besides being deep and talented at the top, the Bengals also have a pretty extraordinary supporting cast.

That much was evident when fifth-ranked Lone Peak rode into town to face the top-ranked, two-time defending champs on Tuesday.

With star striker Taylor Peay still sidelined with a knee injured and with Loomis sitting out the second half with a quad issue, Brighton got outstanding performances from a number of role players to rip apart the Knights.

Carter Babcock opened the scoring with a goal in just the eighth minute, Josh Hicks added a second goal in 21st minute and the Bengals dominated from start to finish en route to a not-as-close-as-it-may-sound 3-0 victory over Lone Peak.

Babcock, arguably a star in his own right, shined, Hicks shined, striker Jerry Dearden shined and pretty much everyone that donned an orange uniform shined.

"I thought we had a great effort all over the field," said Brighton coach Russ Boyer. "The starters, the subs — every position was solid. They kept the level up. I thought we controlled the middle pretty well. We got some dangerous opportunities that we didn't finish, but that happens.

"But yeah," Boyer added, "I thought we had a good performance from a long list of players today, and that's what we need. That's the type of total team effort that we need going forward."

Hatanaka agreed with that assessment, and pointed out that whomever is on the field seems to play well for the 11-0 Bengals, who are trying to be the state's first undefeated team since Lone Peak back in 2005.

There's such a long way to go — and so many things can and will happen — but the Bengals seem to be simply growing stronger and deeper as the season progresses.

"We just have a lot of depth on our team," said Hatanaka. "Whenever someone subs out, the other person can take their spot and raise their game. It's a lot of fun to play with everyone out there."

And it's sure a lot of fun to watch.

When Brighton gets rolling, the results are usually pretty devastating.