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Show 8 TIMPANOGOS TIMES April .27, 2011 Plenty of Yellow Cards as Viking Soccer Finally Beats Lone Peak '"."T' ' i it JfJ . ... - H - , , r - by Dan Williams After nearly a decade, ten one goal losses and four over-time losses, the Pleasant Grove Viking soccer team earned an overtime victory over rival and number 9 ranked Lone Peak Tuesday, April 19, 2-- 1. It was Coach Erik Bayless' first victory over the Knights in eight years as head coach of the men's soccer team. Coach Bayless acknowledged the victory by saying "these are the types of wins that can change a program." The Viking team has a good mix of talented veterans and young talent and that was key to the victory. A solid veteran back line and goalie Ben Connor held the Knights scoreless in the run of play, and only a sideline referee's view of something no one else on the field saw in the box resulted in a long discussion resulting in a penalty kick for the Knights and a yellow card for Viking sophomore Ryan Fonseca. The Knights Alex Anderson converted the pen-alty kick about ten minutes into the second half for the first goal of the match. The Vikings began to lose their composure after the call and a few more calls went against them with yel-low cards awarded to Win-ston Sorhaitz and Kevin Fon-seca. But the team settled down "because they wanted to win," in senior play maker Sorhaitz' words. With about 10 minutes left in regulation, a free kick was awarded to the Vikings about 20 yards from the goal on the left corner of the box. Sorhaitz took the free kick that looked destined for the upper V of the goal, but it bounced off a Knight's head in the wall and went into the upper center portion of the goal as the Knight's goalie was going for the block in the upper V. From that point on, the Vikings controlled most of the possession and run of play and looked like the better team. They couldn't get anoth-er goal before the end of reg-ulation, so the region rules state a golden goal set of two ten minute halves be played and if there is no score, the game ends in a tie. The Vi-kings continued to press and got a few looks in the first overtime but with no score, the game went to double overtime. After a run toward the Knight goal, the Knights cleared the ball out to Viking freshman mid-field- er Nate Spencer, who saw his friend, Kevin Fonseca, and passed it to him. Spencer took off on a give and go that Fon-seca put right at his feet on stride as Spencer had blown past the first line of midfield defense. With the Viking wing defender still out of place from the clearance and the other central defender choosing to stay with the ex-perienced Viking forwards, Spencer made a quick move faking to his right and blow-ing by the remaining Knight central defender on his left and suddenly was rushing at full speed in the Knight box with only an onrushing Knight goalie to beat. Spen-cer calmly slotted the ball on Winston Sorhaitz scores on a penalty kick in the second half to tie the game 1 against Viking nemesis Lone Peak. Photo courtesy of Timpanogos Times the ground into the left cor-ner of the net for the exciting golden goal victory for the Vikings. The team rushed the field and in the euphoria for ward Ryan Fonseca ended up catching Coach Bayless' teeth in the crown of his head, an injury that Fonseca and his mother agreed was worth the victory. Vikings May Have Turned the Corner : i& (- - . J . ( ... fought back and scored five runs on six hits including two dou-bles (Hooley and Broc Starr) and four singles, and a little more help from the Cavemen's pitcher. Note: (This is for any-one that wants to be a pitcher when you grow up.) Once you put your foot on the rubber, you can't remove your foot unless you move it backwards off of it. If you make any motion for-ward without actually throwing the ball, you will be called for a Bock. That is a bad thing because the umps will automatically move any runners on base, for-ward one base. If there is a run-ner on third, he will advance one base-hom- e. Score! So, just re-member this, "IF you're on the rubber, don't dance!" OK, back to the game, one of our runs in the fourth was the result of one of two bocks called in that inning. At the bottom of three, PG's up, 6-- 4. In the top of the fourth inning, AF added one more run and PG added two runs in the bottom of the fourth. In the bottom of the sixth in-ning, Mr. Starr connected with a round tripper and as we started this report, we will end it as Mr. Jacobson also sent another shot over the fence. The final score was 10-- 5 forPG. These two teams meet again Wednesday, April 20, and again on Friday, April 22, at 4 p.m. The Cavemen are sitting in third place in region with a 4-- 3 by Kent Allen Slumps are no fun. They are easy to fall into but hard to climb out of. Hopefully, the Vikings are finally out of their slump and ready to get back to basics and winning again. Due to a Shawn Jacobson home run in the top of the 6th in-ning of the third Bengal's game, plus four more runs across the plate in that same inning, lead to the Vikings stealing a huge 10-- 3 win from Brighton High School last Friday. Tyler Harmon got the win after a solid five inning per-formance and Cade Hooley doing clean up duty to finish the game. Defense was the name of the game until the Vikings broke it open and effectively caged those tigers. With that win under their belts, the Vikings welcomed the Cavemen from American Fork and some welcome sunshine for this series of games. With Hooley on the mound, the Vikings went three up, three down on the Cavemen and then went to work on offense. The, Vikings didn't appear to lose a step as Riley Erickson slammed the first pitch of their at bats into a gap and the game start-ed with a double from where he scored the first point of the game. The Cavemen came back by scoring four of their own runs in the top of the third in-ning, jumping ahead, 4-- 1. Not to be outshone on this day, PG Shawn Jacobson bends the aluminum bat as he hits the ball against third place in region, American Fork. Jacobson 's shot over the fence helped PG go on to defeat the Cavemen 10-- Photo courtesy of PicMyKid.com record and the Vikings have 4--6 record and hopefully heading in a positive direction. r-- -- f ' rw' .. ; .... . -- &r . Catcher Rylan Peterson tags out an AF player at home plate. Photo courtesy of PicMyKid.com PG Viking Racer Finishes 1st at Utah County Invitational by Dean Von Memmott A Pleasant Grove Viking won the boys' 800 meter run at the Utah County Invitational, held April 22, 23 at Timpano-gos High School in Orem. Haven Shelton won the event. He was the only Vikings to win a championship at the two day track invitational. Shelton said, "The best part about winning the 800 today was that it qualified me for state. Until today, I hadn't qualified for state this year. My strongest competitor in the race was Clayton (Young of Ameri-can Fork). I've raced against him in cross country, and I have a lot of respect for him." Young, by the way, finished second in the 800 meter race. In the girls' 800 meter race, Kendra Richardson fin-ished fifth. She said, "I think just placing in this race made this one of my best days. Of the other six girls who placed, I have a lot of respect for them. They're superfast. I'll be rac-ing against them at region and state. Viking Blake Ellis took seventh in the boys' 400 me-ter run. Alex Compton finished second in the boys' 100 meter dash. The Viking boys' medley relay team took eighth. Cavemen Protect Crib During Viking Visit win. American Fork made ev-ery effort and came out on top this time. American Fork is cur-rently sitting in second place in Region with a 5-- 3 Region and 11-- 3 overall record. These teams meet for the third and final meeting in Re-gion play on Friday starting at 4 p.m. in Pleasant Grove. I am going to throw in a great stat favoring the Vikings and their fans. It seems that stand-ing room only is the only way to enjoy a baseball game at AFHS, unless you get there early to get one of maybe 20 seats available in the "bleachers". Viking Field is unquestionably the best high school facility for baseball in the whole state. Plenty of room and safety precautions for players and fans. You go, Darren! by Kent Allen The second game with American Fork High School was played at American Fork, and the Cavemen successfully protected their home field by thumping the Vikings, 10-- 3. Junior Tyler Harmon was the starting pitcher for the Vi-kings, but with only two strike-outs in the first three innings, he had difficulty finding a con-sistent strike zone. He was replaced by Senior Broc Starr who finished the game, but had no strikeouts. In checking the stats, American Fork's man on the mound, Kyle Wright, went the distance for the Cavemen, and had only three strikeouts. The Viking's bats were all busy with nine hits in the first three innings but could only generate three runs including a giant homer by senior Court Iorg to start off the third. Hopes were high as the next batter, Cade Hooley, had a great hit get picked off at the fence in deep center. Broc Starr was next, great hit, deep, but catchable. Done. Next, Tyler Harmon got a great hit that dropped for a single, but got picked off from first base on a questionable but quick move from Mr. Wright on the mound. And so went the game. From the fourth inning on, it was ground outs and fly outs with a walk and a couple of singles scattered throughout the balance of the game. This was one of those games where it took a balanced effort of defense and offense to ' i T. r 'i ! J Court org collides with teamale Broc Starr for a fly ball. Starr came away with the out. Photo courtesy of PicMyKid.com Lady Vikings Take on Lady Cavemen and Lady Knights at Fox Hollow V.' X: v.. Amy Roberts. Erin Wilkes. Photos courtesy of Chris Hocker V ft The Diamondbacks high five PG City Mayor Bruce Call andformer Major League Star Dale Murphy during the Parade of Teams. The opening ceremonies highlighted the players, who also met Miss Pleasant Grove Lea Wride, "Bee " from the Salt Lake Bees, and other city officials. Photo courtesy of Timpanogos Times Little League Holds Opening Day Ceremony by Angie Walker The PG Recreation Baseball Opening Day Ceremony was held on Saturday, April 23, on the South West field at the Ma-nila Ball Park. Recreation Coordinator Ty-ler Wilkins conducted the Pa-rade of Teams from the Mustang and Pinto Leagues. As he an-nounced coaches and players by name, each team ran around the bases, high fiving Mayor Bruce Call and special guest speaker Dale Murphy as they went. The National Anthem was sung by Miss Pleasant Grove Lea Wride then Jay Dee in-troduced Dale Murphy to the crowd. Dale Murphy is a former Ma-jor League Baseball outfielder and first baseman. During an 1 baseball career, 1976-199-3, he played for three different teams, but is noted for his time with the Atlanta Braves. Murphy won consecutive National League Most Valuable Player Awards (1982-198- 3), the National League's Silver Slugger Award four straight years (1982-198- 5), and the National League's Golden Glove Award five straight years (1982-198- 6). In 2005 Murphy started a non-prof- it organization called the iWontCheat Foundation to pro-mote ethical behavior, and deter steroid use and cheating in youth athletics. When Dale addressed the crowd, he gave the boys hope when he told them that when he was eight years old he had one hit the whole year. He stated that baseball is a tough game to learn. He told the boys to encourage their teammates, to have fun, be determined, use good sportsman-ship and never give up. Dale also encouraged parents and coaches to give constant encouragement to the players. The Ceremonial First Pitch was done by Dale Murphy, Mayor Bruce Call and Bumble from the Bees. From the Mus-tang League, the Giants catcher Wynn Fox and Angels catcher Kyle Gassman were invited to catch those first Ditches. |