Gunnison out, but Hawks, Templars
advance in state soccer finals
By James Tilson
Staff writer
Oct. 19, 2017
Two teams in, one team out, as Sanpete high school girls soccer teams entered state playoffs.
Manti and North Sanpete both advanced to semifinals to be held next week. Gunnison made it to a quarterfinal game, but will go no further.
The Lady Templars advanced to the Utah State 3A semifinals by defeating Summit Academy 3-0 on Wednesday, Oct. 11, and then defeating Granger High 2-1 on Sat. Oct. 14.
Utilizing a “team first” philosophy, the Lady Templars stayed strong in possession in both its games.
“I’m super proud of them,” said Manti coach Eleshia Steinfedt. “They played as a team, they executed as a team. They worked hard to ping the ball around the field.”
Last year, the Lady Templars were ousted from the playoffs during quarterfinals in a heart-breaking fashion. This year, the young Manti squad, with only three seniors, will go to the semis to face the Morgan High team, which was ranked No. 1 in its region.
“We knew this team had potential. You don’t know if everything is going to come together as you’d hope, but [we’ve] been working to bring out that potential,” Steinfedt said.
The semifinal game will be held at Jordan High School on Friday, Oct. 20, and the Lady Templars will begin play at 3:45pm.
The Utah 3A finals will be played at the Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 21, and will begin at 1:30 p.m.
The North Sanpete High Lady Hawks also advanced to the 3A Utah State semifinals with victories last week over Maeser Prep (score of 1-0) on Wednesday, Oct. 11, and over Carbon High by a score of 2-0 on Saturday, Oct. 14.
The Lady Hawks traveled to Lindon for their first-round game against the higher-ranked Maeser Prep. However, by winning its first game, North Sanpete was able to host its second-round game versus Carbon.
North Sanpete will face the second-ranked Judge Memorial team in the second semifinal on Fri. Oct. 20. The game will start at 6pm.
On Saturday, the Gunnison Valley Lady Bulldogs won their first-round game by defeating Utah Military Academy 3-0 to advance to the Utah State 2A quarterfinals.
The Lady Bulldogs lost in that quarterfinal game, 8-0, against Rowland Hall-St. Marks High School on Monday.
