Badly beaten to the ball and trailing 2-0 at the break, Davis displayed a disciplined second-half effort with three goals, and eked out a 3-2 victory Thursday in a Region 1 battle against Layton.

“In the first half, our fight and desire to win — we were not necessarily lazy, but we weren’t doing the small things right. We weren’t getting the best balls to get shots off,” Davis junior forward Kate Willard said. “Then we started winning the 50-50 balls in the second half. Once we started possessing the ball, that made it easier to take those shots.”

“We’ve been talking about discipline this week; we trained ourselves to do the easy, simple stuff, which opened things for us,” Willard said.

After Davis pulled even at 2-2, Willard dialed up the winning goal from long distance in the 64th minute.

Photo supplied, Shaunna Burbidge

“I did a little fade; I faked one way, turned the other way and it was wide open. I put it full post. It was a tough shot, but I work on that so I can finish in a game,” Willard said. “It was exciting to get a goal and come back and win, but at the same time, we expected to win. So, it was expected, but also thrilling and good to get the winning goal.”

The Darts (8-2, 1-1 Region 1) may have expected to win, but that’s not how the first half played out when the Lancers (6-5, 1-1) raced to a 2-0 lead.

Sophomore Sophia Barnard converted a corner kick from Calli Holje in the fifth minute, and Amelia Smith drilled a shot from beyond the box to put Layton up at the break.

Even though her team had the advantage, Layton coach Tara Ferrin was dubious in her assessment of the situation.

“I don’t like to go two goals up because the mentality is we’ve got a goal to give. Two-zero is the worst soccer score ever,” Ferrin said. “You give them a goal and they get the momentum; they tend to get another goal.”

Ferrin’s fears proved to be well-grounded.

Davis sophomore Reial Phongsavath brought the Darts back to even, finally getting them on the board in the 50th minute, then completing a brace with a second goal 6 1/2 minutes later. Both shots launched from roughly the same spot, well beyond the box.

“Obviously, you don’t want to go down early in the first half, two goals. On the first one, we connected the ball well. When we keep the ball, we’re always at our best,” Phongsavath said. “On the second one, same thing. I got the ball on top of the box, found an open hole where we moved the ball to; just hit it and it happened to go in.

“Two goals give you so much energy. It makes you want to keep going,” Phongsavath said. “In the first half, we were kind of slow and weren’t on our game; they wanted the ball more. In the second half, like Kate said, we stayed disciplined and found a way to get the back of the net for the win.”

Both teams were coming off Region 1 opening losses Tuesday, with Davis blowing that tenuous 2-0 lead at Syracuse while the Lancers lost in a penalty kick shootout to Weber.

“We know we don’t lose two in a row. We tell ourselves if we lose one game, it’s fine, it’s not the end of the world, but we have to win the second game. We tell ourselves we can’t lose at home,” Willard said. “Down 2-0, we knew we were better; we can come back from anything. The team that fights the hardest, wins. We’re confident we’re going to put those goals in. Not any doubts.”

Although Layton played well, Ferrin lamented what might have been.

“They did a great job taking the momentum. That’s when you want a timeout, but that’s in basketball, not soccer. Unless you can regroup, you’re playing on your heels now because they’re super excited they got one back,” said Ferrin, who is also head girls basketball coach at Farmington. “What set the tone in the second half is they beat us to the ball; they’re going on offense, we’re going on defense.

“In the first half, we were first to the ball, in the second half they were first to the ball. They won the 50-50 balls in the second half and got one more goal than we did.”