Lehi Sports
Skyridge soph team wins league title
Beky Beaton / Lehi Free Press
The Skyridge freshman-sophomore boys soccer team won the Canyons conference championship with a 2-1 victory over Westlake Monday (Apr. 27) at Jordan High School.
The Thunder scored first and had a 1-0 lead at the half. Freshman midfielder Spencer Geraldi took the opening kickoff for the second period and passed it to freshman forward Austen Hudson, who took a long shot from well outside the penalty box into the right side of the net for the equalizer.
The teams then battled through the rest of regulation time and a first overtime without scoring again. Two minutes into the second overtime, sophomore forward Javier Rodriguez connected with Hudson at the top of the goal box, and he placed the ball inside the right post for the golden-goal victory.
Sharing time between the pipes for the Falcons, sophomore Jude Horman made three saves and freshman Mason Dell collected four as they combined for the win.
The team is coached by Jhoan Alvizo with Josh Rawson as assistant and Ben Williams as the goalkeeper coach. Jerry Preisendorf is the head coach of the Skyridge program with Andy Proetel as varsity assistant coach.
“This team really came together,” Alvizo said. “They listen and want to learn. I’m very proud of them.” The team ended the season with 12 wins, three draws and one loss. They scored a combined 32 goals this season and gave up just 12 in 16 games.
The Canyons School District has a league of 20 sophomore/freshman teams that Skyridge plays in which includes teams from schools in Class 6A, 5A and 4A. It is divided into north and south brackets.
League play started in March, and they played nine league games along with a few other non-conference contests. The top team out of the North played the second team out of the South and the top team out of the South played the second team out of the North in a semifinal.
Westlake beat the number one seed in the north, Brighton, and the south No. 1 Falcons defeated No. 2 Alta to advance to the conference title game.
“This is why we have this team as part of the high school experience,” Preisendorf said. “They learn the Skyridge way as freshmen, they train with the seniors as well as the juniors and see how the speed of play differs, they compete in practice, and I believe this is a vital team in the high school program.
“This team worked hard all year for this,” the coach continued. “Their goal was to win the tournament, and to them it was their season. Many players contributed to the success of the season, and some are even called up to play in JV games. At Skyridge we do our best to keep the rosters fluid.”
Other team members included sophomores Broderick Welsh, Easton Chamberlain, Tony Abraham, Vikrant Yadav, Crew Ellison, Nixon Talbot, Preston Chilcote, Jesse Martinez, Lachlan Green and Jensen Taggart plus freshmen M.C. Miller, Camden Jones, Benjamin Davis, Carson Sabey, Sayed Nemati and Lucas Tillman.
