High school soccer: 8th shutout puts Cedar in championship match

SANDY — There was disbelief throughout Jordan High School's stadium Friday afternoon when the unthinkable happened.

On the Cedar side of the soccer field, there was screaming, yelling, crying, hugging and smiles everywhere. On the Juan Diego side, girls had their hands on their hips. Tears followed, and the big Soaring Eagle crowd was silent.

It's what happened after Cedar's Makayla Warby scored the game's only goal with 2:45 remaining, and the Redmen beat the two-time defending 3A champions in this semifinal matchup.

"We keep doing things for the first time this year," said Cedar coach Scott Kamachi, whose team has a 13-3-3 record and is in the state championship match for the first time since 1994. "We condition really, really hard — even after games sometimes and (goalkeeper) Tara (Shipp) played really well."

Shipp helped Cedar earn its eighth shutout this season. Her booming kicks helped the Cedar offense, but that's not how she will remember this match.

"The last few minutes seemed to last forever," she said. "It was stressful, but we have been training for it all season."

Kamachi must get Warby, Shipp and the rest of the Lady Reds to regain their composure in time to play at 1:30 p.m. today at Rio Tinto Stadium for the 3A championship.

It will be difficult for the title contest to live up to this match.

Juan Diego, led by junior sensation Emily Bruder, came in with a 15-2-1 record and hadn't lost to a 3A school all season. The Soaring Eagle had the ball most of the day on Cedar's side of the field and kept Shipp busy by pushing various shots toward the net.

Most of the shots, however, were 20 yards away or further and that gave Shipp time to handle them. The Soaring Eagle wanted to keep the pressure on the visitors because coach Simon McFall planted it in their heads at halftime that it would take just one goal to win.

"You could just see it," he said. "It was that type of game. We had plenty of shots, but (Shipp) made some great saves, and they made the most of their opportunities."

Shipp's two best saves came on second-half shots by Bruder. In both cases, the ball came skipping hard across the artificial surface and Shipp barely managed to get her right hand out and knock it away.