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Jones’ extra-time goal lifts Morgan girls soccer over Ogden; technicality means Morgan might miss shared region title

By Patrick Carr - | Oct 5, 2021

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

Morgan's Jayda Jones (right) lines up to shoot while defended by Ogden's Aya Obayashi (left) and Sae Obayashi (right) during a high school soccer game game Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in Morgan.

MORGAN — Jayda Jones controlled the ball, skipped by a defender and scored past Ogden High goalkeeper Emily Blackford to secure a 3-2, extra-time win Tuesday that saw the Morgan girls soccer team split the season series with the Tigers.

Trojans freshman Lacie Poll scored two goals in the first half and almost had a third as MHS led 2-1 at the break, with Ogden’s Ruth Larsen scoring midway through the first half.

Tori Kalista scored early in the second half for the Tigers to level the score, then an injured Jones scored the game-winner three minutes into extra time.

“I’m so excited, we’ve been working really hard to beat them so I’m glad that we were finally able to push through,” Jones said.

Jones said she’s been dealing with leg cramps this season — she’s not sure why — so she can only play in 10-minute spurts: 10 minutes on the field, 10 minutes on the training table.

“So that was my 10 minutes towards the end,” Jones said.

Tuesday was the last day of regular-season games for 3A girls soccer with the state tournament bracket coming out on Wednesday.

On paper, Morgan (14-2, 8-1 Region 13) finished the regular season a half-game behind Ogden (12-4, 9-1) in the region standings, which wrapped up the Region 13 championship — its third region title in a row — on Monday by beating Ben Lomond.

Realistically, there’s literally nothing to separate Ogden and Morgan in the 163 minutes of soccer they played against each other this season.

But technically speaking, Morgan appears out of a shared region championship.

According to Morgan coach Bryan Searle, the Trojans’ September game against Layton Christian was declared a no-contest because LCA didn’t have enough available players. Morgan beat LCA 6-0 on Monday.

The UHSAA handbook doesn’t specify what constitutes a no-contest versus a forfeit. Phone calls to Morgan and Ogden administrators weren’t returned by publication time. The Region 13 handbook isn’t made publicly available online, unlike handbooks for Regions 1 and 5.

Searle said he’s not sure how things will work regarding the region title. It doesn’t appear likely that anything will change.

At the same time, the defending state champion Trojans are expected to be in contention for this year’s state championship trophy. So is Ogden.

“I suspect that this will be one of the teams in the finals, as they should be, because they’re a great team,” Searle said of Ogden.

What Tuesday’s result might do now is determine whether the teams could play each other in the state semifinals or the state championship game this month.

They’ve both been ranked No. 1 in the RPI this year and it’s expected they’ll both land in the top four of the standings, if not constituting the top two.

In September, Ogden beat Morgan 1-0. In Tuesday’s game (rescheduled from Wednesday because the original region soccer schedule didn’t account for the UHSAA’s season-end date), the Trojans went ahead 1-0 in the first five minutes.

Meliah Moore had a shot from the left side that was parried away by Tigers keeper Emily Blackford, but the rebound went right to Poll, who made no mistake with an open net.

“I think our intensity was up a lot today. We were really fighting to win it and we’ve been working on passing,” Jones said of what was different this time against Morgan.

About 15 minutes later, Ogden midfielder Neveah Peregrina swiped the ball from a Morgan defender and had her one-on-one shot blocked by the charging goalkeeper, Madison Wangsgard.

The rebound went right to Ruth Larsen, who lobbed the ball over Wangsgard’s head and into the goal.

A few minutes before halftime, Moore hit a long pass down the field to Poll, who controlled it, rounded the keeper and scored for a 2-1 halftime lead.

After Kalista tied the game early in the second half, the weather changed and brought a stiff wind from the southwest with some rain. Early in extra time, Jones brought a pass down, evaded defenders and scored to win the game for the Trojans.

The head referee showed a yellow card to an enraged OHS coach Ryan Robinson, who sprinted onto the field and claimed a handball as Morgan celebrated.

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