St. Joseph Catholic High’s girls soccer team had yearned for a breakthrough.

The Jayhawks have had promising teams recently, but they’ve been routinely beaten by Salt Lake private schools Rowland Hall and Waterford for the past several years.

In 2022, the breakthrough finally came thanks to the tried-and-true method of … a new head coach, a 17-player team with just three combined seniors and juniors, plus a handful of starters playing positions they weren’t really used to.

The Jayhawks finished this season with a 12-3 record and won the 2A North region title with a 7-0 mark, their first girls soccer region championship since 2011.

They beat both Rowland Hall and Waterford this season and finished as 2A state runner-up in their first championship-game appearance since 2012.

St. Joseph is the 2022 Standard-Examiner All-Area Girls Soccer Team of the Year.

“I thought we’d be successful, and I thought we’d take our lumps to be quite honest with you,” first-year head coach Tom Evans said. “We probably got lucky with the schedule where we didn’t have a ton of really tough games (early), and that kind of let us build and get better and then they just really bought in.

“And I think by midseason, that whole freshman and sophomore thing just kind of went away and we all just started playing together.”

The Jayhawks beat Rowland Hall for the first time since 2014, ending a 14-game losing streak where their average loss came by 7.6 goals (and eight ended via mercy rule).

They also beat Waterford for the first time since 2019 to notch just their second win in 19 tries against the Ravens since a 1-0 win in 2012. All it took was the new head coach, eight freshmen, six sophomores, one junior and two seniors.

“I think it was a little rough at first but as we got to know each other, again with a younger team, once we got to grow that chemistry and really get to know each other, we were pretty excited for the way that the season was going to go,” senior defender Kara Sugiyama said after the state-championship game loss against Rowland Hall in October.

Sugiyama was one of several players that Evans said played a different position than prior years. She played outside back and winger, then moved to center back this year, anchoring a defense that allowed 13 goals in 15 games.

Alex Walker, a junior captain, moved from center back to defensive midfielder. Aspen Springer moved from winger to outside back.

St. Joseph didn’t have many returners this year, but the ones it had played key roles. Sugiyama was one such key returner, along with sophomore Cicily Flores (who played defender last year and goalkeeper this year), senior Abigail Walker, junior Alex Walker and sophomore Abby Gough.

Gough led the team with 21 goals and eight assists a year after scoring 19 goals and assisting 14. Abigail Walker had seven goals and seven assists; Alex Walker scored seven goals with four assists.

“A lot of the freshmen that became sophomores played a ton last year, so that was helpful because it wasn’t like they were jumping into a situation they weren’t used to,” Evans said. “So I kind of give credit to the team last year where they had a bunch of injuries in their upper class and they played a bunch of the freshmen last year.”

Another infusion of freshmen helped St. Joseph again in 2022. Forward Sofia Evans had 17 goals with a team-high nine assists and Jaci Coles scored five goals with seven assists.

As Tom Evans noted, the Jayhawks had an easier start to the season than they could have. Rowland Hall wasn’t until game No. 11, Waterford was game No. 13 and both games were at home. Ironically, a 2-0 loss to 3A Juan Diego in early September gave Evans an indication that St. Joseph had something good going on.

Two weeks later against Rowland Hall, Gough and Coles scored in St. Joseph’s 2-1 win that broke the long losing run to the Winged Lions. A week later, Gough, Alexsen Willardsen and Alex Walker scored in a 3-0 win over Waterford that wrapped up the region championship.

Two playoff wins followed, including a 1-0 nailbiter over Millard in the semifinals. Rowland Hall got its revenge in the state championship game by beating St. Joseph 2-1 where the Jayhawks struggled to create scoring chances.

The loss brought conflicted feelings to the team: sadness, anger, and happiness about the 2022 season being both a banner year and a breakthrough season.

Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.

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