TIGER TITLE: A year after heartbreaker, Ogden girls soccer beats Morgan to win 3rd state title in 5 years
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- Ogden High’s girls soccer team celebrates winning the 3A state championship over Morgan on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
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- Ogden High’s Bella Gray (left) and Morgan’s Kaydence Wardell (right) compete for the ball during the 3A girls soccer state championship game on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
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- Ogden High girls soccer players celebrate a goal by Kate Pulley (center, top) during the 3A girls soccer state championship game against Morgan on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
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- Morgan High goalkeeper Miya Turner stops an Ogden shot during the 3A girls soccer state championship game on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
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- Ogden High’s girls soccer team celebrates winning the 3A state championship over Morgan on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
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- Morgan High’s Kapree Charlton looks for a pass during the 3A girls soccer state championship game against Ogden on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
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- Ogden High’s Nevaeh Peregrina (13) and Bella Gray (10) exchange possession during the 3A girls soccer state championship game against Morgan on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
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- Morgan High girls soccer players celebrate a goal by Macie Burton during the 3A girls soccer state championship game against Ogden on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
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- Ogden High’s Ruth Larsen shoots at goal during the 3A girls soccer state championship game against Morgan on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
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- Ogden High’s Kate Pulley celebrates after scoring a goal against Morgan during the 3A girls soccer state championship game on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
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- Morgan High goalkeeper Miya Turner dives to save an Ogden goal during the 3A girls soccer state championship game on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
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- Morgan High’s Kapree Charlton (25, left) and Ogden’s Kallie Cherry (18, right) jostle for possession during the 3A girls soccer state championship game on Saturday, Oct. 21, 2023 at America First Field in Sandy.
SANDY — After Thursday’s 3A soccer state semifinal win over Juan Diego, Ogden High senior Nevaeh Peregrina called the Tigers’ season a “revenge tour” in the wake of losing a heartbreaker in the 2022 state title game.
The tour ended Saturday. The Tigers got what they came for.
In the end, it wasn’t so simple, as Saturday’s 3A championship game opponent, No. 4 Morgan, made No. 2 Ogden work for its 3-1 victory.
But at this part of the year and on the big stage of America First Field, a win means you get the gold-accented championship trophy instead of the silver-accented second-place trophy the Tigers took home last season.
“I personally feel super happy. I feel like, especially the seniors, it’s a super sentimental moment,” Ogden junior Bella Gray said. “We wanted to kind of end off their careers, their high school careers, on a good note. Especially what happened last year, it was like redemption, and it felt really good and we played really well.”
Ogden won a girls soccer state title for the third time in five years, and this year’s win completes an 18-2 season for the Tigers that included an unbeaten Region 13 championship as well.
“We just put in the work and we just did it, so I’m so excited. Like, I can’t really say anything, we’re first place and we got our state championship title back and I’m livin’ now,” said Peregrina, who’s headed to the University of Portland for college soccer.
Saturday, Ogden faced a Morgan (14-5) team they beat 5-1 and 4-1 in the regular season.
Both teams were wary of each other’s quick-strike capabilities, having watched each other score early and often two days earlier in their respective state semifinal wins.
After more than a half hour of a scoreless game Saturday with about a dozen scoring chances for Ogden, midfielder Maya Robinson was alert enough at the back post on a corner kick to tap the ball past Morgan goalkeeper Miya Turner in the 39th minute for the Tigers’ first goal.
It was relief for Ogden, which had produced more shots than Morgan but hadn’t scored, even when that repertoire of shots included an open-net chance for freshman Elle Weston a minute before the opening goal.
“I think definitely at halftime we came to the conclusion, like, you know, this is the last 40-ish minutes that we’re going to be playing, just whoever you are and how much you’re playing, just give it your all when you’re out there,” Gray said. “So I think that intensity was just what we needed, we kind of regained and refocused at halftime, and it really helped.”
Shortly after the second-half restart, it was clear the goal had opened the floodgates for the Tigers. Gray and Ruth Larsen found all sorts of wide-open space down the wings.
Morgan’s Macey Miller made a goal-line clearance on Larsen’s rebound attempt to keep the game at 1-0.
A minute later, Gray chipped the ball over a defender to junior Kate Pulley, one of the Tigers’ best players in the first half, and Pulley thumped in a goal for a 2-0 lead.
Pulley said she wasn’t worried that Ogden had gone scoreless for so long in the first half.
“I think that we were pressing really hard and, obviously, Morgan’s defense is super good, so I think that we knew it was coming. Just had to keep working,” Pulley said.
Gray, a recent Ole Miss soccer commit, took her chance at a long-range shot on the left side in the 47th minute and it went in for an all-but-technically-over 3-0 lead, with Pulley credited for the assist on the goal.
Two minutes later, Morgan’s Macie Burton hit a long free kick that went through Ogden keeper Emily Blackford’s hands for a Trojans goal, but the Tigers were never really threatened again and mostly controlled possession until the final whistle.
For the final 30 minutes of the game, Turner repelled whatever Ogden threw at the Morgan goal, including a point-blank save to deny Gray from 6 yards out.
Morgan head coach Bryan Searle expressed pride in his team for getting to the championship game after a season in which the program’s numbers dwindled to around 20.
“They finally accepted everybody as a team, as a team member and they were willing to win as a team and lose as a team,” Searle said. “It wasn’t an easy season for sure, but 20 players for two teams basically and we end up at the (championship).”
He also lamented how the Trojans played at times Saturday against an Ogden team that he felt “probably handles 5A and competes in 6A.”
Where it was Ogden’s third title victory in four championship game appearances in five years, Saturday was Morgan’s second straight loss to the Tigers in a championship game.
Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.