Tori Kalista raced down the left side of the field with the ball at her feet, stopped and went toward the middle of the field. Everyone could see that Ogden High’s senior soccer forward was about to shoot for the far corner.

That’s exactly what she did. The thing is, the shot went in the right spot.

“You have special players, Tori’s one of them. She spins and looks at that back corner, they have a phenomenal goalie and she put it in the only place she can’t block it. You don’t coach that, you don’t work on it, you just hope they find those things out and do it,” Ogden coach Ryan Robinson said.

Kalista’s goal was the only one in a 1-0 win for Ogden against Morgan that could be important in both the Region 13 championship race as well as playoff seeding down the road.

Monday’s matchup between the Trojans and Tigers (Nos. 1 and 3, respectively, in the UHSAA RPI rankings) pitted this year’s two Region 13 favorites — last year’s 3A state champion Morgan and last year’s 4A runner-up Ogden — and two of the teams expected to contend for the 3A state crown against each other.

Ogden (8-3, 5-0 Region 13) controlled possession for most of the first half on Monday and came closest to scoring just before halftime when Kate Pulley’s snapshot inside the penalty box clanged off the crossbar.

Morgan (8-2, 4-0) didn’t clear the rebound. The ball fell to Grace Pulley, whose looping header was well saved by a backpedaling Madison Wangsgard.

“They were playing a lot of long balls and it was kind of difficult for us because we were just playing it right back, and it was in the air so much. We kind of like to settle it down, play on the floor and I think that was one thing they did that was hard for us to defend,” Kalista said.

The Tigers controlled possession for large parts of the second half until the Trojans, chasing an equalizer, parked most of their team in the Ogden half during the final 10 minutes.

All the Tigers needed was one chance and Kalista pounced after defender Kallie Cherry booted the ball downfield to relieve some pressure at the back end.

Morgan had a couple of late chances from corner kicks, but Ogden’s defenders and goalkeeper Emily Blackford were there each time to secure a fifth win in a row to start region play, all with shutouts.

Ogden and Morgan are now in the same region as a result of the latest realignment, and if there was any team that was set to immediately do well in 3A, it was girls soccer.

“I don’t think that game was one of our best games, but I think that they’re a good team and that was some competition that we really haven’t had to deal with yet, so I think it’s good we have a team in our region that will give us some challenges. We can learn from it a lot,” Kalista said.

2ND HALF OF SOCCER SEASON UNDER WAY

Monday’s matches in Region 13 concluded the first half of region games for those schools with playoff brackets set to be released Oct. 6.

Here’s a look at the standings for Regions 1, 2 and 5; the 6A and 5A playoff brackets will be released Saturday, Oct. 2. Teams’ region records are displayed first, followed by overall records in parentheses.

REGION 1

1. Davis, 8-0 (10-1)

2. Layton, 8-1 (10-3)

3. Syracuse, 6-2 (9-4)

4. Farmington, 4-5 (5-7)

5. Fremont, 2-6 (6-6)

6. Weber, 2-7 (5-8)

7. Clearfield, 0-9 (2-10)

REGION 2

1. Roy, 9-0 (9-4, can clinch the region title with a win Tuesday)

2. Taylorsville, 6-2 (6-6)

3. West, 5-3 (6-6)

4. Kearns, 4-4 (7-5)

5. Hunter, 3-5 (3-7)

6. Granger, 2-6 (2-8)

7. Cyprus, 0-9 (0-12)

REGION 5

1. Bonneville, 6-0 (10-2)

2. Bountiful, 5-1 (9-3)

3. Woods Cross, 3-3 (9-3)

4. Northridge, 2-4 (7-6)

5. Box Elder, 1-5 (4-8)

6. Viewmont, 1-5 (4-8)

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