4A girls soccer playoffs: Bobcats happy to get by tough Wildcats

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WOODS CROSS — Once was more than enough for Sky View.

After losing a first-round playoff game to Bountiful a year ago, the Bobcats resolved to not taste defeat so quickly again. This time around, they were determined to chart a much different course through the 4A girls soccer tournament.

This time, Sky View wanted to create pleasant memories — not bitter ones.

"We wanted it so bad," senior defender Jessica Clements said. "Our coach yesterday said to pretend like it was the beginning of the season. He told us we had to come out and play with heart if we wanted to get anywhere."

The Bobcats created an ideal start for their new beginning, rallying from an early one-goal deficit to defeat fellow No. 2 seed Woods Cross 3-1 on Tuesday afternoon.

With the victory, Sky View (13-2-2) will advance to the quarterfinals to play Snow Canyon on Thursday.

Getting past Woods Cross (11-4-1) proved much harder than the final score would indicate. The Wildcats played a physical brand of soccer and did everything under the sun defensively to keep explosive Bobcat forward Stacy Bair from raining goals on them.

Sky View countered by marking both Woods Cross forwards and shifting over the weak-side defense to keep the Wildcats in front of them and clog up the passing lanes.

It all added up to a match where fouls were frequent and the number of yellow cards almost rivaled the number of goals for the two teams.

"We knew it was going to be a grind-it-out 80 minutes," Bobcats coach Doyle Geddes said.

Things played out favorably for Woods Cross initially.

The Wildcats took a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute when Woods Cross forward Aliyah Miller slotted a ball inside the right post. Miller created an easy goal for herself when she beat Clements to a through ball and tapped it past her.

That advantage did not last long. Sky View equalized in the 15th minute when Annie Hughes sent in a volley under the crossbar.

Bobcat forward Jessica Brooksby set things in motion when she lobbed a free kick over a three-man defensive wall. Wildcat goalkeeper Kellie Hogan knocked down Brooksby's shot, but could not hold onto the ball. It bounced out to Hughes at the right post and she knocked it back in.

It ended up being the shot in the arm Sky View needed.