High school soccer: Strange goal helps propel Davis to finals

DRAPER — It took a fluke play for the floodgates to open.

For 62 minutes, it appeared there could be an upset in Tuesday's 5A soccer semifinal game between Davis and Viewmont. The Darts, who had defeated the Vikings in both regular season meetings and were the Region 1 champions, were heavy favorites to advance to the championship game to be played Friday at Rio Tinto Stadium, but on the quicker artificial surface at Juan Diego, the team was struggling to gain control.

It all changed in the 63rd minute as Davis scored following a flip throw-in and the Darts cruised to a 3-0 win.

"We never really lost confidence. We were pretty sure we were going to score if we just kept at it," said Davis senior Camille Ostler, who made the flip throw that resulted in an own goal by Viewmont and changed the whole flow of the game. "We have been a second-half team all year, so we thought it was going to come. I have had a couple of those throws result in an own goal before, but never one that was any bigger than that."

Davis uses a 4-3-3 formation, but with the team not accustomed to playing on a more narrow and faster playing field for long stretches, the Darts realistically were in a 4-5-1.

"We like to try to get our wings moving back but then getting quickly into the attack, but defensively, it was a 4-5-1," said Darts coach Souli Phongsavath. "I think the playing field had a big influence on both teams. Our passing wasn't as sharp."

Whether it was the field, wind — which was fairly brisk — or Viewmont playing a tough game, the result was most of the play was in the midfield, with neither team creating many quality scoring chances for much of the game.

Davis used its momentum gained from the opening score to pretty much end the suspense in the 72nd minute. After being pretty effectively shut down all afternoon, Katie Taylor made an impact with a precision pass through the middle to Mackenzie Harrison. The sophomore took one touch into the area and, with the outside of her right foot, hit a nice shot to the left corner past the onrushing keeper.

"That was exactly what we were working on yesterday at practice," said Phongsavath. "We wanted a player to make a run across the middle, and then have a player make a run deeper and try to get it through. It worked just how we were running it. I think that second goal really was more of a relief to me. I think the girls were just going to keep playing that way regardless."

Davis iced it with a third goal in the 78th minute when defender Lexie Dunn curved a nice left-foot free kick from about 27 yards outside the right side of the box into the upper-left corner of the net.

"We are excited to get over the hump," said Ostler. "We have been working hard all year and, really, we feel like we deserve to be in the finals. We are ready to go out and play our game on Friday."

e-mail: mblack@desnews.com