2007 Boys Soccer

From the Hurricane Valley Journal
By: Michael Rinker
For better – then for worse – the Tigers found out that the playoffs are a whole other season.
In the first round of the state 3A tournament, Hurricane avenged an early-season loss to North Sanpete by defeating the Hawks 2-1 in Hurricane April 30.
The win earned them a home match in the quarterfinals three days later against Uintah, a team they’d beaten 3-1 in mid-March.
But the Hawks exacted their revenge when it counted, beating the Tigers 2-1 on a fluke goal with about five minutes left in regulation.
The match featured the first and third top scorers in 3A this season: Uintah’s Derek Bunderson and Hurricane’s Ben Holmes.
Neither disappointed.
Bunderson got the Hawks on the board first barely 13 minutes into the match. He picked off an errant pass about 15 yards in front of the Tigers goal, blew past a defender and blasted one into the net from the left side.
Most of the first half was played in the Hurricane end, but Uintah got relatively few shots on goal. In the second period, the Tigers were able to pressure the Hawks and create three or four scoring opportunities.
Holmes cashed in one of those opportunities in the 71st minute. After Jordan Hall controlled a drop ball in Uintah’s end, Holmes came out of a scramble with possession directly in front of the Hawks goal, about 20 yards out.
Uintah’s goalkeeper came out, Holmes faked right, then punched the shot along the ground past the goalie’s desperate dive back to the left.
Momentum seemed to have swung the Tigers’ way, but then came the key defensive play of the match. Little more than two minutes after his goal, Holmes again got the ball in point-blank range in front of the goal and ripped the potential game-winner. The Uintah keeper, however, reacted well and made a great save to preserve the tie.
Less than two minutes later, the visitors had pushed into the Hurricane end. The Hawks’ Shaun Remington unleashed a shot that the Tigers’ goalkeeper blocked, but the ball ricocheted off him into a defender and caromed into the goal to give Uintah the 2-1 lead and, five minutes later, the game.
Hurricane was able to get one more decent shot on goal just 30 seconds later, but the Hawks again got a good save and a trip to the state semifinals.
Coach Doug Katzenbach said his team didn’t play its best game, but played hard. “It was another one of these one-goal games. It seems every game this year was like that."
The Tigers finished the season 6-10-1 overall. They made the playoffs with a 2-2 record in Region 9 3A action, beating Canyon View twice and losing both matches to Cedar.
In the Tigers’ first-round win over North Sanpete, Luke Jepson scored both goals including the game-winner with about 12 minutes left in the match.
Uintah, which finished the regular season at 6-7-2, defeated top-ranked Logan (15-1) in the first round in a shootout. Some were calling it one of the biggest upsets in Utah prep soccer history. The Hawks will play Park City on May 9 at Timpview.

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