Lehi Sports
Pioneer girls soccer ends season with second-round loss
Beky Beaton / Lehi Free Press
The Lehi High School girls soccer team dropped their final Region 3 contest and finished the regular season at 3-5 and tied for third place in the league.
The Pioneers were awarded the No. 6 seed in the final 6A RPI rankings and drew No. 11 Davis in the second round after a first-round bye.
The Darts ended their season with a win in Lehi. The Pioneers completed the year with an overall 10-9 mark.
Oct. 7: American Fork 3, Lehi 1
The Cavemen went up 2-0 in the first half and also matched the lone goal by the Pioneers after the break to solidify their victory. Lehi sophomore midfielder Aly Badger scored for her team in the contest.
“The results really don’t tell the story of this game,” said Coach Jonas Hartmann. “We outshot them by a lot, but they were very efficient in taking advantage of their opportunities and we didn’t do that.
“We played solid and dominated the game with both possession and chances but we just couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net,” the coach continued. “We also gave up some unfortunate goals from distance where we didn’t close down quickly enough.”
Oct. 14: #11 Davis 2, Lehi 0
“This was a great even game where we unfortunately gave up a couple of soft goals in the sense that we did it to ourselves by not keeping proper shape and reacting to the play,” Hartmann said.
“We created lots of chances, but the Davis keeper came up big many times as well as we had many shots just clearing the post. I felt we could have had more out of the game, but we need to finish our chances in order to be a real threat, something we will adjust to and fix by next season.
“Davis is a solid team and I think a bit of a sleeper team in these playoffs,” he added. “They are definitely not an 11th seed quality-wise.” The Darts have now earned a semifinal berth by upsetting No. 3 Farmington.
Although the team was hoping to go farther in the playoffs, Hartmann was pleased with the progress his players made this season.
“We chose a tough path with really hard preseason games this season because we wanted to test ourselves against the best early,” he said.
“We saw teams like Weber, Layton, Syracuse, Herriman and Mountain Ridge which we knew could impact our record, but we were less concerned about that and more concerned about testing ourselves,” he went on. “We ended up winning three of those five and went to PKs against Syracuse in that loss.
“We certainly did not plan on going out in the second round of the playoffs, but I think we got a rough draw with Davis where we would have been better off lower in the seedings,” he said. “I do think we as a team progressed in the way we play.
“We knew last year was a great year and hard to follow with some big players leaving the program, but I thought others really stepped up and next year will be no different,” Hartmann said. “My focus was on our style of play and our possession which was greatly improved.
“I think we played well enough to win some of the games we lost. We are very aware of who we are and how we want to play. We have a plan, a program and have created a culture where players can have fun and achieve great things.
“I really applaud the players for buying into the culture and leading us in that area,” the coach said. “I felt our team was really close and no matter the role of the player, each was important, included and adding to the team and program.
“Our seniors stepped up and we added a couple of freshmen in Presley Shippen (starter) and Kajsa Sherman who both added to our varsity team as well as a bunch more who in time will add to varsity as well,” Hartmann said.
“Our JV team had a great year which is an indication of the future, so we are proud of them. We dropped a little in scoring season over season but also played one game less and took a tougher route.
“I do think we need to tighten up a little defensively having given up more goals but again, the teams we played were better. I am very confident in what we can do next season and I already look forward to getting going on that,” the coach concluded.
