MANTI—Sanpete County’s four-team delegation of boys’ soccer teams each went home far sooner than they hoped last week.
The No. 3-seeded Manti Templars suffered a shocking 1-0 upset at the hands of No. 14 Summit Academy last Wednesday as part of a chaotic segment that saw four of the top eight teams in the bracket go down, in turn sending the No. 10, 12, 13, and 14 seeds into the quarterfinals.
In addition to the Templars, No. 9 North Sanpete fell flat against a highly-underrated No. 8 South Summit squad, 4-1, last Wednesday.
In the 2A tournament, No. 11 Gunnison Valley got trounced by No. 6 Rowland Hall-St. Marks, 8-1.
No. 7 Wasatch Academy was the only team to get past their first opponent, beating Diamond Ranch Academy, 6-0, but they were quickly dispatched in the 2A quarterfinals by No. 2 Real Salt Lake Academy, 9-1.
Summit Academy’s forwards were an unexpectedly tall order for Manti to deal with, firing long shot after long shot while getting a number of favorable calls by officials in the final seven minutes. The only goal of the game was scored by the Bears around the five-minute mark as a free kick near midfield went directly at the goal and was nudged past senior Shane Arnoldsen for the score.
Elsewhere, senior Brady Jacobsen scored his 19th and final goal for North Sanpete. No stats were reported for Gunnison Valley against Rowland Hall.
