All-Area MVP: Emery Jacobs’ switch to forward made big difference for state-champion Davis
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- Davis High senior Emery Jacobs poses for a photograph outside Davis High School on Monday, Nov. 28, 2022. Jacobs, a Weber State women’s soccer signee, is the 2022 Standard-Examiner All-Area Girls Soccer Most Valuable Player after scoring 18 goals with three assists and helping lead Davis to the 6A state championship game.
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- Davis High girls soccer players celebrate beating Farmington in the 6A state championship game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
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- EMERY JACOBS, DAVIS, MVP. Forward • Senior … Jacobs scored 18 goals with three assists and helped lead Davis High to the 6A state championship. Jacobs is signed with Weber State.
KAYSVILLE — When Davis High’s girls soccer team somewhat unexpectedly won the 6A state championship in October, there didn’t seem to be much of a question about which player would receive the championship trophy first and lift it in front of the crowd.
It was senior captain Emery Jacobs.
After all, she was one of the best forwards in Northern Utah this year, scoring 18 goals with three assists and playing a crucial part in the Darts’ second state title in three seasons.
Jacobs is the 2022 Standard-Examiner All-Area Girls Soccer Most Valuable Player.
She credited her teammates around her, as well as her club and high school coaches, for making things easier for her at the forward position.
“We had good defenders, so that helped, and they knew what balls to play over the top to me and obviously Liv (Flint), Kayla (Wade) and Brooklyn (Phongsavath),” Jacobs said. “All of our midfielders knew how I played and how Liv played, and I just think we all worked really good together so that made it easier.”
The thing about Jacobs is she’s a defender, not a forward. She had to fight a natural defender’s urge all year.
“When you’re a defender, you kind of have the instinct of being like, ‘OK, I gotta get back and chase that girl,’ and you just want to get that ball back,” she said. “Well, when you’re the forward, especially we played a double-nine up top, like remember, ‘OK, my job is to stay high and just mark this one girl and not three different girls.'”
Jacobs played outside back her sophomore year for the Darts and central defender last year when Davis allowed a subterranean six goals in 17 matches.
She signed with Weber State last month, listed as a defender, but played forward this year for the Darts for a few reasons.
The first was Phongsavath felt Jacobs was versatile and talented enough to help Davis get more goals this year — the Darts won Region 1 in 2021 with just 23 goals in 17 games.
The second was that a preseason injury to the presumptive starting goalkeeper presented the coaches with a dilemma: keep Emery in defense to steady things back there, or put her up top to give fellow senior Olivia Flint some help?
The coaches felt the defense was solid enough and that Flint could use some help up top. And pretty much once the season started, Jacobs played up top.
Phongsavath actually put Jacobs in as a forward for about 20 minutes in the 2020 6A championship game against American Fork, which is where he got the idea to make Jacobs’ switch a thing this year.
It paid off, not only with Jacobs’ 18 goals, but with Flint’s 17 goals in what was one of the better forward tandems in the state.
Jacobs bagged two goals in the season opener against Logan and had five more multi-goal games throughout the season, including a playoff hat trick against Copper Hills and a first-half brace in the state semifinals against Skyridge that ensured Davis advanced to the state title game.
She also had a game-winning goal against Farmington in the regular season, had a foot in all three goals of a 3-1 win at Weber, and assisted Flint’s game-winning screamer in the playoffs at American Fork.
“It’s people that set it up that makes the play, really,” Jacobs said. “I just get credit because I put it in the back of the net. Really, it was everybody, so I feel like I did expect it because I knew we were a good enough team to make it happen.”
Ironically, one of Jacobs’ best performances in the 2022 season might’ve been the only time where she played a defensive position for more than a few moments.
For the entirety of the second half in the 6A state title game against Farmington, as the Darts led 1-0, Jacobs played in a roving defender-esque position that was, specifically, no more than a couple yards away from Phoenix forward Swayzee Arnell (her team’s most dangerous offensive player) at all times.
“It was awesome, thinking about this season overall. I think it just makes me realize at least that I’m lucky to go to Davis and have all the girls on the team that we did have, especially being a captain of the team, you get to know everybody on a different level,” Jacobs said. “I just think it was really special, especially since we didn’t win region. It made us want to win state even more.”
Jacobs almost didn’t play this season. She had a bunion on her left foot and considered having surgery that would’ve kept her on the sidelines the entire year.
Phongsavath said her playing forward and opting against surgery was the singular difference for the Darts this year.
“I think it’s absolutely vital. I know we’re not state champions without her embracing that role, 100%,” Phongsavath said. “I think if she would’ve had surgery early on, I think we make a run maybe, but we’re not state champions at all.”
Instead, Jacobs tolerated the pain throughout the seasons, accepting that in her case, anyway, it wasn’t something that would subside with rest. She had surgery a couple of days after the state championship game.
She’s right-footed and thus, her left foot is her planting foot when she shoots the ball and she felt plenty of pain.
“Yep, every time,” she said.
From starting the season unsure if she’d play defender or forward, to leading a title-winning team in goalscoring on one foot, the 2022 season certainly wasn’t anything Jacobs expected.
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.