Soccer championships: Davis wins 2nd title in 3 years; Bountiful dedicates season to former coach
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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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- Davis High and Farmington soccer players hug after the 6A state championship game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
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- Bountiful High girls soccer players react after losing the 5A state championship game to Skyline on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
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- Davis High girls soccer player Olivia Flint (9) celebrates with DHS students after the Darts beat Farmington in the 6A state championship game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
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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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- Bountiful High girls soccer players react after losing to Skyline in the 5A state championship game Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
HERRIMAN — In the book that spells out Davis High and Farmington’s budding sports rivalry, the chapter detailing the 2022-23 school year already looks interesting.
The schools’ girls soccer teams split their two regular-season games with the home team winning 1-0 each time. Farmington ultimately won the Region 1 title.
The Darts won something pretty big for themselves Friday, beating the Phoenix 1-0 in the 6A state championship game in Herriman.
“It feels awesome. I’m just super proud of my team, we worked really hard to get here,” Davis senior Emery Jacobs said. “I mean, we kind of were the underdogs going into this because obviously, we didn’t win region, but I think it’s just great payback and it feels even better to win against your rival.
“Especially for me,” Jacobs continued, “because I varianced to Davis. I’m supposed to go to Farmington so it’s even funner for me. Most of my friends go to Farmington.”
In a departure from years past, the UHSAA staged the state soccer championships at Zions Bank Stadium, which has a seated capacity of 5,000, instead of the 20,000-seat former Rio Tinto Stadium (now called America First Field).
At least half the seats inside ZBS were occupied, which created a lively atmosphere throughout the match — and for when Davis’ Kayla Wade scored the only goal of the game in the 28th minute off a Brooklyn Phongsavath corner kick.
“The team works together. We put in hours of work and I think it’s always worth it in the end, especially when you have outcomes like these,” Wade said.
This was Davis’ second state championship in three years and its fifth in nine years, to go along with a runner-up finish in 2019.
This year was Farmington’s first time getting past the quarterfinal round, let alone making a title-game appearance, and it did so with a team that could have several returning starters in 2023.
“We’re a young team, we got nervous and stuff, but it took us a little while to compose ourselves and play our game and I thought the second half we did much better at doing that,” Farmington coach Sarah Beecher said. “I’m proud of our team, we made school history and we’re ready to come back here next year.”
Though the season ended in a familiar spot for Davis, 2022 hasn’t been standard. In an effort to get Davis to score more goals this year than in 2021, head coach Souli Phongsavath moved the team’s best defender, Jacobs, up to forward.
“Well not only that, but our goalkeeper who was supposed to start (at the beginning of the year) gets injured, so we’re thinking do we solidify the defense, or do we go for goals?” Phongsavath said. “I just didn’t want to play that game, I wanted to add to our offense.”
So Jacobs, a Weber State commit who has rarely, if ever, played forward, moved and scored 18 goals this season. Fellow forward Olivia Flint scored 17 goals. The team had 56 goals overall compared to 23 in the 2021 season.
“Going into the season, Souli kind of gave me a heads up like, ‘Hey you might be a forward this year, just be ready for it.’ Honestly, I think it worked really well,” Jacobs said.
And yet in the second half, Jacobs moved into a defensive midfield position that was, specifically, no more than a couple yards away from Farmington’s leading scorer Swayzee Arnell at all times.
The Phoenix didn’t have many chances and what ones it did have, Davis cleared out. Arnell had the best scoring chance for Farmington, but she dragged a one-on-one shot wide in the first half.
Once the second half started, Jacobs was on Arnell like velcro. Farmington worked hard to make some scoring chances but couldn’t find many against a Davis defense that sat back more in the second half.
The win completed a sterling playoff run by the No. 7 Darts that saw them knock off No. 2 American Fork in a road quarterfinal and No. 11 Skyridge in the semifinals.
“To me what’s special about this year is it’s so unexpected, right,” Phongsavath said. “We lost a couple games early, had a lot of injuries, lost some games — against a 5A team. To be able to do this is amazing.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be in several of these before and win some of them as well, but this is probably the most unexpected state championship that we’ve had. That’s no knock on them because it’s their heart and their grit that we were able to do it.”
The Davis-Farmington rivalry is at the point now where Phongsavath called the prospect of losing to FHS “scary.” But afterward, the rivalry wasn’t so much of one.
The postgame handshake line was more like a collection of hugs as most of the players on both teams, if not all of them, know each other and know each other well.
5A FINAL: SKYLINE def. BOUNTIFUL
Bountiful fell to Skyline 4-2 in a penalty shootout in the 5A championship game after the teams tied 0-0 at the end of regulation.
Chloe Pickett and Belle Sorensen’s penalty kicks were both saved by Skyline goalkeeper Grace Kinghorn, which decisively put the Eagles ahead 2-0 after the first two rounds of penalties.
Bountiful, the No. 8 seed in the state tournament, dedicated this season to former assistant coach Michel Britte, who died of glioblastoma brain cancer in June.
“As we set team goals to sweep this region team, or sweep that region team, or whether it’s a team term GPA of 3.5 or higher, win region, win state, invariably the battle cry was, ‘Let’s do it for Meesh.’ we called him ‘Meesh,'” Bountiful head coach Lou Plank said.
On Bountiful’s sideline during the game, there was an empty lawn chair with a straw hat on it in memory of Britte. The players had ‘MB’ written on their legs.
“He was so well-loved by these girls, not only the girls program but the boys program as well,” Plank said. “In any event, he was just an unbelievable coach and an incredible person, and he is sorely missed.”
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.