High school soccer: Waterford, St. Joseph charge into 2A finals

SANDY — During a three-day stretch in late March, Waterford's boys soccer team lost to South Summit 3-0 and Rowland Hall 7-0.

Those defeats created a crushing blow for a Waterford team with state championship aspirations — or so it seemed.

The Ravens avenged that 7-0 shellacking with a 2-1 victory over Rowland Hall on Friday in the 2A semifinals at Jordan High School. They'll face St. Joseph today at 11 a.m. in the 2A championship at Rio Tinto Stadium.

"To lose 7-0, you've got a make a lot of coaching errors, and I did, and fortunately we put our heads together as a staff and made some major changes," said Waterford coach Tim Dolbin.

The changes have been gradual, but everything came full circle in Friday's semifinals.

Waterford scored twice in the first half, and then hunkered down and protected the lead in the second half to advance to the final for the second consecutive year.

"They came out and played very well in the second half. Last year we blew 2-0 leads like four or five times, so this time we knew we just had to hold onto the lead, clear it and not let them score that second one," said Waterford's Avery Smith.

A week after going down a pair of goals in the quarterfinals to Millard, Waterford got off to a great start on Friday, as Josh Warner headed home a Smith cross just 13 minutes into the match for the 1-0 lead.

Fifteen minutes later, Waterford doubled the advantage, as Smith tapped in a rebounded shot that was initially saved well by Rowland Hall's keeper.

Dolbin stressed to his players at halftime not to feel too comfortable with the 2-0 lead.

" 'If you think this is over, there's no way (Rowland Hall's coach) is not going to put his mind to the game. They're going to come at you,' " Dolbin cautioned his team. "And they did."

Rowland Hall, which beat Waterford again in late April, came out with a much more aggressive approach in the second half and eventually capitalized in the 50th minute as Hans Wiener scored on a clever back heel from about six yards out.

Rowland Hall continued to attack with conviction, and Waterford eventually opted to slow it down and protect its 2-1 lead.

"They brought so much pressure, and it took us a little while to get everybody covered and get better matchups," said Dolbin.