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Show .Vernal Express, Wednesday, October 4, 2006 C7 T51 .ft " I Cjui 0 mm Senior Rachel Matson blocks a Wasatch player from getting to the ball on Thursday. Photo by Janine Shannon ' A bright foture' in soccer for Lady Utes Despite two losses last week, 5-2 against Judge on Tuesday and 3-1 against Wasatch on Thursday, Coach Cort Pierce said the Lady .ac,ya " bright future." " "This was the best game we have ever played against a powerhouse pow-erhouse team," Pierce said of the game against Judge. "The final score does not reflect the way our team played. We had Judge on their heels, and it felt good." Uintah struck first off a set play, and Sarah Konrad rifled a ball into the side netting from 25 yards out. The team led 1-0 until the last minutes of the first half when Judge tied 1-1 on a shot that Pierce said should have never even been taken and was due to defense mis-communication. Judge started the second half out strong and scored one more goal, but Uintah answered quickly with a rocket ball from senior Kaleena Peltier, tying the score 2-2. With five minutes left in the game, Judge scored when junior keeper Kenzy Simper and freshman sweeper Bobbie Heaton misread a high pass. This gave Judge some momentum, and they quickly scored two more goals in two minutes, ending the game 5-2. On Thursday, Wasatch scored two quick goals in the first half. Uintah answered with one in the second half. Wasatch scored their third and final goal late in the second half when Uintah tried to clear the ball out of the defensive third. The ball was mis-struck, hit a Wasatch player, play-er, and then bounced in the net. "We had several chances to equalize and even win in the first and second half, but we just couldn't find the back of the net," Pierce said. As the shadows grew long for Thursday's JV soccer game against Wasatch, Uintah continued con-tinued to play hard. With the score 0-0 at half-time, Uintah came back and scored three goals in the last half, winning 3-0. "Both the Wasatch and Judge coaches were impressed with how much our team has improved," Pierce said. "No more are the days of 12-0 routings. rout-ings. The Lady Utes have a bright future." Uintah plays Morgan on Tuesday and must win this game to advance to state. n 'Ol J V "L'j I & Ms :) - - Ute defense, Mike Hopla and Cutis Hautamaki, put a stop to Morgan runner. 28. half, Uintah led the Trojans 8- Uintah had plenty of oppor- Morgan had 101 yards in pen- 6 with a Merkley touchdown, tunities to win over the Morgan alties, including a pair of block- from Dallas Smuin, who quar- Trojans Friday, but they were ing violations that negated two terbacked for Uintah for most unable to capitalize on the turn- long returns. With only just of the first half, overs and penalties and lost 8- under 4 minutes left in the first But the Morgan defense was Alesha Watkins, Stacia Dickson, Shaylee Roth and Tisha Raymond qualify for the State Tennis Tournament. Lady Utes tennis continues on to state The Lady Utes ended their season with a grueling week of tennis. On Tuesday, they traveled trav-eled to Wasatch and came away with a 3-2 win. 3rd singles player, Adrianne Francisco, 1st doubles team, Stacia Dickson and Alesha Watkins and 2nd doubles team, Arianne Sam and Brittany Hall all won. On Thursday, the Utes then traveled to Emery. With a majority of the varsity team sitting out to get ready for the Region tournament the Utes still made a strong showing. 1st singles Tisha Raymond and 2nd singles Shaylee Roth both came away with an easy win. Playing 2nd doubles, Jessica and Sophia Wallis made a strong showing againstttthe very strong Emery team falling 4-6, 4-6. On Friday, the Lady Utes traveled to Park City for the Region 10 Tournament. 1st Singles, Tisha Raymond came into the tournament as the 3 seed and had to face Judge first up. She then had a strong win over Morgan to ensure a State Tournament berth. 2nd singles, Shaylee Roth went in as the 5 see and had to win her first match to even continue in the tournament. She had a tough match again Morgan, winning in 3 sets. She then got to play park City and probably played the best she had all season. Her score didn't reflect how close the match was. At 3rd singles, Adrianne Francisco fought hard for 3 sets before losing a heartbreaker and knocking her out of the tournament. ;. f-, , At 1st ' doubles, Stacia' Dickson and Alesha Watkins played Wasatch first up and won easily, then had to play a tough Judge team. They then got revenge for an earlier loss to Morgan winning a great 2-set match. The 2nd doubles team of Arianne Sam and Brittany Hall, playing their first season at the varsity level, loss their first-round match in an other heartbreaker to Wasatch. The Utes qualified 4 of 7 varsity players for the State Tournament to be held this weekend at BYU. The JV Team made a strong showing. The Utes had the largest larg-est JV team in the Region with 29 girls. There were many pleasant pleas-ant surprises. Freshman Allie Shipton and Kristie Francisco had a 1st round win over Park City. Sara Madsen and Hannah McPhie lost a closennatch in their consolation bracket final over Morgan losing The best JV result came from sisters sis-ters Jessica and Sophia Wallis in the JV1 draw winning the consolation bracket with an 8-1 win over Morgan. 1 Nathan Merkley comes down with a Dallas Smuin pass for a Ute touchdown against Morgan. ftyurn key in the win. The Trojans pick up a first down until there The Utes hope for a win when inarched 95 yards on 11 plays were just four minutes left in they play Judge on Friday at and scored to more ahead 8-14 the first half. home. Judge is 5-2 and last at the half. Morgan had 349 yards of week they defeated Union 24-7. ' The Utes had 88 yards of total offense 178 on the ground - offense. Uintah (1-2, 2-5) didn't and 171 through the air. ; V A . |