High school soccer: Bengals roar past Spartans in second half to reach 5A title game

WOODS CROSS — When Murray High capitalized on a mistake by Brighton's keeper to take a 1-0 lead late in the first half of Tuesday's 5A semifinal, it was only natural for the Bengals to start thinking — uh oh, not again.

Murray upset Brighton the quarterfinals last year, and the Bengals' players knew history could easily repeat itself if they didn't tidy their game up.

To the Bengals credit, they approached the second half with an entirely different attitude — fearless.

And a Brighton team that sometimes struggles to put the ball in the back of the net scored three times in the second half to pull away for the convincing 3-1 victory at Woods Cross High School.

"Second half we came out and played very, very hard," said Brighton coach Russ Boyer. "Got together, got on the same page with how we wanted to attack what they were doing. They did it with energy, they did it together and with unity, and it paid off for us."

Brighton did a decent job possessing the ball in the first half, but nothing fruitful developed from it. Murray had a handful of chances in the first half as well, and it eventually grabbed the 1-0 lead in the 35th minute as Alex Souvall's shot slipped right though the hands of Brighton star keeper Aaron Stoddard.

"We weren't flying to every ball, we weren't acting like we wanted it. The whole Brighton soccer is to come out flying and wanting it, and we just weren't doing that," said Connor Coletti.

Brighton didn't waste any time altering the game after halftime. Midfielder Skyler Milne equalized just seven minutes into the second half, a very critical goal as it prevented the underdog Spartans from progressively packing it in defensively as the game wore on.

"It opened the game up. Once it was tied, they can't suck back and pack it in, they had to play straight up and we were able to create more chances," said Boyer. "We learned that from last year too — the longer the game went, the more they packed it in."

James Carrigan scored the go-ahead goal in the 56th minute with a calm finish amid traffic in the box, and then Coletti buried an insurance goal in the 70th minute to crush any Murray hopes of overtime.

The victory sets up a dream 5A championship at Rio Tinto Stadium this Thursday between long-time rivals Brighton and Alta, who last met in a title game in 2006.

Alta won the season series 1-0-1, including a 1-0 triumph at Rio Tinto early this month.

"I've been waiting for that my whole life," said Coletti. "I don't think we need to do anything differently, we just need to play our game and the result will take care of itself."

The experience of that match should help both teams feel at ease from the opening whistle.

Email: jedward@desnews.com