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Show Rmm Sower: State Towmmu&tt By DAVE WIGHAM Clipper Sports SALT LAKE CITY Going into the state tournament there were seven teams that had their sights set on taking the state title away from the Wildcats of Woods Cross. After one week of action the Cats are the only undefeated team remaining in the double elimination tourney and now there are only three would be challengers. AS OF this writing the Cats were slated to take on Skyline in a Monday Mon-day meeting while the Vikings of Viewmont were trying to get another shot at the Cats by taking on Bonneville. Woods Cross has weathered all kinds of storms in their quest to repeat as state champions. First they had to raise to the challenge of a strong Cottonwood team in the opening round, then they had to hold off a late rally from the always tough Brighton squad and then last Friday they had to battle the weather and Viewmont in the battle bat-tle of the unbeatens. . IN EACH case the Wildcats had what it took to come out on top. Many Salt Lake soccer fans felt the Colts of Cottonwood would be a strong challenger for the Cats and that their opening round matchup would be one of the best of the entire tournament. However the Cats simply went about their business busi-ness and proved too much for the Colts. Before the halftime whistle had blown junior Chris Bingman had found the net twice and sophomore Henry Ihrig once to build up a 3-0 advantage for the local side. Wildcat Wild-cat goalie Sean Simmons was never nev-er really tested in this outing as the Cats controlled the game from the midfield. Todd Benson scored the lone goal of the second half to give the Cats a relatively easy 4-0 win. THAT SENT the Cats up against Brighton. A state tournament just wouldn't be the same without these two powers meeting at least once, they met a year ago in the finals. Once again the duo of Chris Bingman Bing-man and Henry Ihrig were the difference dif-ference in the first half as they both added goals to their credit. Woods Cross had things under control in the second half and when Todd Benson scored on a great individual indi-vidual move on the left wing the Cats were on cruise control with a 3-0 lead. Brighton fought back though and scored two quick goals in the final ten minutes of play to close out the game at 3-2. The game was no where near as close as the score would indicate as the Cats were in complete control throughout. "I guess we just eased up a little at the end" offered coach Kevin Rigby. THAT SET up the matchup of Region Four rivals Viewmont and Woods Cross. Going into the game both teams had won against each other. The weather was horrid as a continous rain and two previous games that day had turned the field into a mud bath. The two powers slushed at each other for 20 minutes before sophomore sopho-more Henry Ihrig scored a couple of beautiful goals, to give the Cats a 2-0 advantage. "You can't say much about those two goals" admitted Vike coach Dave Wigham. "They were great individual indi-vidual efforts on Henry's part, he's a great player. The second one was like watching the instant replay of the first." HOWEVER a few minutes later Ihrig was given a red card by the official and all of a sudden the Cats were playing with ten men. "Everyone thinks that the team with 1 1 men should run away with the game in that situation" Wigham said, "But those ten guys know they have to work harder and that's exactly what Woods Cross did. In my years in soccer I have seen the ten men team win more than the 11 man squad." The Cats did concentrate on defense de-fense and for the majority of the game the Vikes couldn't penetrate that defense. Senior Rick Chides-ter Chides-ter found the net for the Vikes and then under constant pressure senior Bryan Hardy tied the game up less than five minutes later. The regulation game ended at 2-2 and so did the overtime periods sending this great game into the penalty shootout. WHEN ALL was said and done Rueben Simonsen of Woods Cross, their ninth kicker, found the net while the Viking shooter sent the ball over the bar giving the Cats a 7-6 win. Viewmont had gained two victories vic-tories prior to their Woods Cross game. In their opening round game the Vikes destroyed Hillcrest 7-1. After spotting the Huskies a quick goal the Vikings bounced back with four goals from Dennis Smith and one each from Steve Henroid, Brian Beecher and Brett Randall. THAT SENT the Vikes up against Skyline who are very defensive de-fensive minded team. Viewmont applied plenty of pressure and it paid off in the first half as Brian Hardy scored one with his head and then Dennis Smith added another for a 2-0 lead. The Vikes settled back and held on for the win, they missed several golden opportunities while the Eagles never nev-er really looked serious about scoring. |