4A high school soccer: Lakers outlast Leopards again in showdown

WASHINGTON TERRACE — Thoughts of going to overtime against East caused an anxious feeling to creep over Avery Ford.

The Bonneville junior remembered well how her team needed to survive a pair of overtimes and a shootout to advance past the Leopards in the 4A girls soccer tournament last season. One year later, it was not an experience she was eager to relive.

"I did not want to replay that," Ford said. "That was too intense."

Ford made certain the Lakers finished things in regulation this time around. She scored the go-ahead goal in the 80th minute, breaking a scoreless tie and touching off a frenetic stoppage-time finish that left Bonneville with a 2-1 4A quarterfinal victory over the state's No. 1-ranked team on Thursday afternoon.

The Lakers finally broke through the East defense, largely because they found a way to attack and repeatedly set up corner kicks. Bonneville had five corner kicks in a 13-minute span — culminating in the one that set up Ford's goal.

Jaiden Thornock went on a counter attack to set up the corner kick. Katie Parkinson took the kick and delivered it right to Ford inside the 6-yard box. Ford got her head on the ball and blasted in a crisp header to make it 1-0 for the Lakers.

That set up for one of the wildest finishes of any soccer game this season. Two minutes into stoppage time, Thornock corralled a ball on the left side of the penalty area and maneuvered around East keeper Michelle Price as she came out to challenge her.

Thornock unleashed a hard shot across the area and curled it inside the right post to make it 2-0.

The Leopards made things interesting when, a minute later, Tessa Nicolaides hooked up with Saralyn Drury on the end of a counter attack to cut the lead to 2-1. But the would-be comeback was stopped by the final whistle just a few seconds later.

By knocking off East in the quarterfinals for a second straight year, the spotlight is firmly back on Bonneville. The Lakers are not the underdogs this time around and understand the path to another title is much tougher than before.

"We know we're the targets now because every team wants to beat the old state champs," Ford said. "So we'll come out knowing every team is going to want to beat us."