Boys soccer: Davis comes out on top in four-goal flurry, defeats Weber 5-1
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- Davis High’s Cooper Harwood (9), and Weber’s Jackson Wade, center, and Garrett Graves, right, collide going after the ball on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Davis High players Miles Iverson, left, and Graidy Arnell celebrate a goal against Weber on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Weber’s Mavrick Baker, right, flicks the ball as Davis High’s Graidy Arnell (21) defends on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Weber’s Jace Rydalch (6) scores past Davis keeper Nick Forsyth, bottom, on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Davis keeper Nick Forsyth readies to collect the ball against Weber on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Davis High’s Mark Seelos (16) and Weber’s Garrett Graves (9) battle for a header on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Weber’s Jackson Wade, center, goes after a Davis ball on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Davis High’s Mark Seelos handles the ball against Weber on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Davis High’s Graidy Arnell advances the ball in a match against Weber on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Weber’s Jaden Millar, right, tries to hold the ball as Davis High’s Kyle Livermore (23) closes in on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- Davis High’s Graidy Arnell possesses the ball against Weber on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Pleasant View.
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- A wide view of Pleasant View and the greater Ogden area, with Davis and Weber contesting a high school boys soccer contest in the foreground, on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.
PLEASANT VIEW — There is often a dearth of scoring in high school soccer matches, so when Davis and Weber tallied four goals in 2 minutes, 51 seconds on Wednesday, that was a notable exception to the norm.
The problem for Weber was that Davis netted three of them and, when the Darts added a fourth before the half, the Warriors were in trouble.
Davis senior captain Miles Iverson punched in a penalty kick in the second half to complete a hat trick and the Darts captured a 5-1 victory over Weber in the Region 1 opener for both schools.
“My teammate that got the penalty for us let me take it. I wanted the hat trick,” Iverson said. “Anyone on the team can make them as well as the next person, but I was already on two, so I wanted to finish it off.”
After a scoreless 22 minutes, Davis (3-1, 1-0 Region 1) broke through when junior Braxton Passey headed in a corner kick from Kyle Livermore with 17:52 remaining in the half.
Then the floodgates opened.
Iverson scored a goal just 14 seconds later, then got his second two minutes later, both times beating Weber keeper Jack Wade in a one-on-one matchup, as Davis led 3-0.
“I was running as hard as I could through the players until the plays ended,” Iverson said. “The first one I got a lucky bounce off my chest and it went in and the second, I got past the defenders, was in space and the goalie came out and I just tapped it past him.”
Weber (3-2, 0-1) finally got on the board when sophomore Jace Rydalch emerged from a scrum in front of the net and kicked one home just 24 seconds after Iverson’s second goal.
Things settled down a bit until Noah Jolley scored with five minutes left in the half and Davis led 4-1 at the break.
Iverson’s PK was the only goal of the second half.
“Any time you play Weber it’s tough. We were fortunate to go into halftime with a larger lead,” first-year Davis coach Dillon Richens said. “Some of it was just rotations in the second half. This is a hard place to play, so credit them for making it a challenge. My boys had to bring it, to walk away with the result.”
Richens replaces longtime, successful Davis coach Souli Phongsavath and feels that heavy responsibility.
“Definitely the biggest shoes you can fill and when you step into that challenge, you want to instill your footprint on the boys, but my thing is if it’s working, don’t try to change it,” Richens said. “I want to bring my personality but know the culture and expectation (Phongsavath) had of the boys, so I try to keep that going and hopefully bring the boys the same success they had through him.”
Weber was playing short-footed as seven of their starters were away from the team (including their goalkeeper), playing at a Roca Youth Soccer Dallas Cup Tournament in Texas this week, but Warrior coach Gavin Flitton said that was no excuse.
“I told the boys that having people missing is out of our control, so we were focusing on what we can control today,” Flitton said. “I’m disappointed; our confidence went away when they put one, two, three in, in a three-minute span, and our heads got down. That’s the way the cookie crumbled today.”
Speaking of focus, Davis concentrated its energies Wednesday after a loss to Ogden two weeks ago.
“It motivated us to win this game. We can lose to anyone, even against Weber with a lot of their starters gone,” Iverson said. “Every game is close. They were just unlucky that a lot of their players play for that team.”