High school soccer playoffs: Alta's Ohai scores 4 as Hawks dominate T-Wolves

DRAPER — New year. Same teams. Same result.

Timpanogos hoped for better things with its rematch against '07 semifinal opponent Alta. But, in the end, the Hawks did to the T-Wolves exactly what they did a year ago.

Alta steamrollered Timpanogos with a flurry of goals, winning 8-0 in the 5A girls soccer semifinal round on Thursday afternoon at Juan Diego High. The Hawks will now face arch-rival Brighton in the 5A championship game Saturday afternoon.

"I just thought we played Alta soccer," Alta coach Lee Mitchell said. "We controlled the ball. We passed the ball."

Kealia Ohai led the offensive onslaught, coming up with four goals by herself. It was a personal best for the junior in a high school game.

Ohai's first goal was part of a series of three that Alta put in during a three-minute stretch starting in the 15th minute.

Jackie Tillotson struck first when she settled the ball near the top of the area and sent a rocket into the back of the net. Ohai made it 2-0 roughly a minute later when she took off on a drive near midfield, pushed into the corner and curled the ball inside the right post. Rose Arthur capped things off in the 18th minute when she rifled a ball that bounced off a defender and redirected into the net.

Whatever energy the T-Wolves had was sucked away by those three goals. Timpanogos crossed midfield about as often as Alta scored during the first half. The T-Wolves did not even get a clean shot on goal until after halftime.

It went a long way to explaining why no team has even scored a goal on Alta in its last five games. Ironically, the last opponents to score on the Hawks was Brighton in its 3-2 victory 23 days ago.

"Our defense is awesome," Ohai said. "I would hate to play against our defense. I know that I couldn't score on our defense."

Ohai certainly had no scoring troubles, especially in the second half. She found all sorts of ways to score. Her second goal came about in the 29th minute after Ohai beat two defenders and drew out keeper Alexa Anderson before slotting it home.

She completed a hat trick in the 42nd minute after sidestepping a defender on a breakaway and punching it home. Ohai added the exclamation point in the 56th minute by juking another defender, after taking a cross in the penalty area, and slotting it in.

Timpanogos had no answer for stopping the highly touted forward, and the large hole the team fell into early forced it to put as many as six or seven players forward to try stimulate some kind of attack.

Naturally, that approach played right into Alta's hands rather than foster even a modest comeback.

"Anytime you can put a team back on their heels, it helps," Mitchell said. "These kids have been doing that all year long."

---

E-mail: jcoon@desnews.com

Alta 8

Timpanogos 0