2A championship: St. Joseph falls 2-1 to Rowland Hall in 1st title-game appearance since 2012
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- St. Joseph Catholic High girls soccer players react after the 2A state championship game against Rowland Hall on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
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- St. Joseph Catholic High girls soccer players react after the 2A state championship game against Rowland Hall on Saturday, Oct. 22, 2022 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
HERRIMAN — Eighteen seconds separated two goals that brought contrasting emotions to St. Joseph Catholic High’s girls soccer team.
In the 61st minute of Saturday’s 2A championship game against Rowland Hall, St. Joseph’s Alex Walker hit a free kick from far outside the penalty box that missed all of her teammates but bounced in for a goal.
The goal brought the Jayhawks to a 1-1 tie with the Winged Lions where less than 20 minutes remained in a windy, rainy contest that St. Joseph was fortunate to only be down 1-0 at that point.
So it was game on … for 18 seconds, at least.
Rowland Hall took the subsequent kickoff down the field and Zakrie Smith thumped in a go-ahead goal just moments after St. Joseph tied the game, sending the Jayhawks’ emotions from elated to deflated.
The quick goal ultimately decided the game, which was a 2-1 loss for St. Joseph against its 2A North region rival at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
That the Jayhawks (12-3) did as well as they did this season — unbeaten 2A North region champs, 2A state runner-up — wasn’t exactly expected back in August given that they have eight freshmen, six sophomores and just two seniors on their roster along with a first-year head coach.
“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 Kara Sugiyama said.
SJC head coach Tom Evans told the team if they went to the state championship game this year, he’d buy them green and white striped socks, so the Jayhawks’ players got said socks on the bus ride down to Herriman and wore them during the game.
“So that was a little bit of an incentive, but we came in eight freshmen and six sophomores. Good players, but didn’t really know what we had. It took us about a half a season to really hit our stride,” Evans said. “I’ll tell you what, after the Juan Diego game where we lost 2-0 but played extremely well, that kind of — I kind of at that point knew, ‘Hey we got something here.'”
St. Joseph may have had some nerves early on with the young team playing in a big moment, but whether they affected the game or not would’ve been hard to tell as Rowland Hall controlled the first 30 minutes of the game about as much as any soccer team can.
It produced a goal in the 16th minute as Beatrix Wall latched on to a through ball and rolled it under St. Joseph goalkeeper Cicily Flores’ right arm.
Flores was busy in the first half, denying the Winged Lions on three good goalscoring opportunities in the first eight minutes of the match. After going up 1-0, RH had three successive corner kicks in the 19th minute and Flores saved a free kick from Maile Fukashima in the 25th.
The Jayhawks’ lone chance of the first half was a long free kick by Abby Gough that was handled by RH’s goalkeeper. Most of St. Joseph’s chances in the game were long-range shots as it was.
Like Friday’s 6A final and Saturday’s 3A final, the 2A championship game was a rematch of a regular-season game.
St. Joseph beat Rowland Hall 2-1 back on Sept. 27, the Jayhawks’ first win over the Winged Lions since 2014. The win, coupled with a win over Waterford on Oct. 4, secured St. Joseph a girls soccer region championship for the first time since 2011.
Rowland Hall and Waterford have taken turns dominating 2A girls soccer the last six years and, really, have dominated the classification since it was added for girls soccer in 2006. Waterford won state titles last year and in 2016; Rowland won four straight from 2017-20.
St. Joseph, though also a private school, was sort of a breath of fresh air in the title game, where the Jayhawks hadn’t been since 2012.
Rowland Hall had been here plenty of times before, which may have helped out once St. Joseph equalized in the second half.
“I was really proud of the way they battled back down 1-0, got the game-tying goal, I think that took a lot out of us so that kind of set us up to give up that quick one right after,” Evans said. “You’re always a little susceptible after the goal.”
Evans and at least one player yelled at the referee after the final whistle for perceived slights in officiating, which was about the only thing heated about the game.
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.