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Morgan's Emma Toone, left, and Ogden's Megan Beus, right, jostle for position during a 3A girls soccer state quarterfinal match at Morgan on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022.

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

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Ogden High's Ruth Larsen takes a shot during a 3A girls soccer state quarterfinal match at Morgan on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022.

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

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Ogden High and Morgan face off in the 3A girls soccer state quarterfinals Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022 in Morgan.

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

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Ogden High and Morgan face off in the 3A girls soccer state quarterfinals Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022 in Morgan.

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

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Ogden High and Morgan face off in the 3A girls soccer state quarterfinals Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022 in Morgan.

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

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Ogden High's Kate Wadsworth (30) hits a pass as the Tigers and Morgan face off in the 3A girls soccer state quarterfinals Saturday, Oct. 15, 2022 in Morgan.

Patrick Carr, Standard-Examiner

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MORGAN — Many people still weren’t settled in for the girls soccer playoff quarterfinal between Ogden High and Morgan on Saturday afternoon when one of the game’s most crucial moments took place.

Forty-five seconds after the 1 p.m. kickoff, the ball fell to Ogden junior Ruth Larsen and Larsen looped a shot into the opposite side netting of the goal for what proved to be an important 1-0 lead.

The early goal played a big part for the No. 6 Tigers (12-5), who won 2-0 and controlled affairs in their third meeting with the No. 3 Trojans this year.

“I think we played really well every time we played Morgan, but I feel like this time we came together as a team instead of playing individually and I think that made a huge difference for us,” Larsen said.

Morgan (14-3) beat Ogden in both games this year to win the outright Region 13 championship. Tigers coach Ryan Robinson thought they played well in both regular-season games, as well as doing so Saturday.

“We played them to two really close games and before we started I just told the girls, we’re going to play another good game, and maybe we win this one, maybe we don’t. There’s no secret sauce,” Robinson said.

Everyone acknowledged how important the early goal was. It allowed Ogden to sit back in defense, absorb pressure, deal with overhead passes and then start counterattacks, which is where its second goal came from.

Morgan goalkeeper Madison Wangsgard had earlier saved a couple tough shots to keep the Trojans within 1-0 but, in the 60th minute, Bella Gray got past Morgan defenders and scored with a one-on-one chance.

“Our season was great, you go out and beat this time twice, it’s a pretty good season. They worked us today,” Morgan coach Bryan Searle said. “We thought we had a good plan coming and we felt pretty confident and obviously giving up a goal … it’s a little bit rough to start a game.”

Both teams were considered state-title contenders and they played in last year’s championship, but they landed in the same quarter of the playoff draw this year, meaning only one could advance to a neutral-site game.

On Wednesday after Ogden mercy-ruled Union, Gray said Ogden’s key to beating Morgan this time was for the Tigers to start the game out well. They couldn’t have started much better.

“We’d been working on just playing the ball forward right as we get it, and it bounced off a lot of people, but taking the opportunities where we get them — sometimes we don’t get as many opportunities and it only takes one to finish a game,” Larsen said. “I was aiming far post, I wasn’t quite for going side netting.”

Things nearly fell apart for the Trojans after the early goal. They lost defender Kenzie Kendell in the fifth minute after she was hit hard in the head from close range by a shot from Gray.

Five minutes later, center back Emma Toone went off the field grimacing and clutching her left elbow — said elbow had a noticeable bump on it — and returned several minutes later, but with her left elbow wrapped.

The referee issued three yellow cards to Morgan players in the first half as well. For all of that, Ogden’s lead was 1-0 and the Trojans were still in the game.

Nevaeh Peregrina hit a long shot off the bar early in the second half. Morgan also hit the bar once. Gray doubled the Tigers’ lead in the 60th minute and from there, they sat back and dealt with the Trojans’ attack.

Ogden will head to Jordan High on Thursday, Oct. 20, for a 7 p.m. semifinal against No. 7 Juan Diego.

ST. JOSEPH 8, AM. HERITAGE 0

OGDEN — On a beautiful afternoon for soccer, No. 1 St. Joseph scored a mercy-rule shutout over No. 8 American Heritage (8-7) in the 2A quarterfinals.

Abigail Walker opened the scoring with a rebound goal in the first minute for St. Joseph (11-2), and the rout was on. Sophia Evans scored two of her four goals before the first-half water break, which according to the Jayhawk announcer was brought to us by Javier’s Restaurant.

Alex Walker gave St. Joseph a 4-0 lead in the 26th minute, then Evans completed the hat trick a minute later, and the Jayhawks led 5-0 at the half.

Abby Gough got on the scoreboard less than a minute into the second half. Evans scored her fourth in the 42nd minute, and Gough added her second score in the 64th minute to end the contest.

“Those are our two big ones, when they’re going, we’re going,” St. Joseph coach Tom Evans said about Gough and Sophia Evans combining for six goals. “But it’s nice to get contributions from the others too, winch has happened in the last couple games.”

St. Joseph possessed the ball in the American Heritage end almost the entire game, outshooting the Patriots 21-5.

“We’re playing a freshman and senior at center back and we started another freshman. The defense is solid,” Tom Evans said.

The Jayhawks will face No. 4 Millard in the semifinals at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, at Juan Diego High School. Millard advanced by beating Maeser Prep 4-1 and features striker Kara Camp, who is second in the state in goals scored with 44 and leads in assists (26).

Justin Johnson contributed to this report.

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