Washington Terrace • Bonneville moved back to the top of the Region 11 girls’ soccer standings with an 8-2 rout of Park City on Thursday afternoon.
The Miners (8-3-1) were in first place before the game but now are two points behind the Lakers (10-2-1), who lost to Ogden earlier in the week.
“I tell the girls all the time that if you do lose, you better learn a lesson from it,” Bonneville coach Rob McDaniel said. “That loss to Ogden fired them up. They knew what was at stake, and today they turned their heads around and got after it from the opening whistle.”
The Lakers took a 1-0 lead 30 seconds into the match when senior striker Jaycee Stein headed in a cross from sophomore Bailey Hassell. Stein doubled Bonneville’s lead in the ninth minute, then capped a first-half hat trick in the 36th minute to give the Lakers a 4-0 halftime lead.
“It’s really important to send a message like that so early,” Stein said. “Thirty seconds in — that’s definitely the earliest I’ve ever scored.”
With a comfortable lead at the break, no one would’ve been surprised to see Bonneville come out flat in the second half. But the Lakers jumped out to a 5-0 lead after Hassell scored her second goal of the match in the 43rd minute.
Storylines<br>• Bonneville ties its highest total of the season with eight goals from five different players. <br>• Bonneville takes a two-point lead on Park City in the Region 11 standings ahead of Saturday’s rematch between the teams.
Hassell said Bonneville’s defensive pressure was a key factor to shutting down the Miners.
“We talk about it every day,” Hassell said. “High intensity is one of our keys, and we always have to be first to the ball and pressure. When it’s in their end, we try to win the ball back as quick as possible to give ourselves as many opportunities as we can.”
With the Miners trying to get something out of the game, the high line of the Park City defense continued to give the Lakers dangerous chances in the second half as juniors Hayden Rupe and Isabel Togisala both scored goals off Park City turnovers.
“I don’t think our team is cocky at all,” Stein said. “We all like to work together and we all want to score and do it for each other. It’s not about who scores when. We always want to score more. That’s what works for us.”
The teams have a quick turnaround before playing Saturday afternoon in Park City in a match that was postponed by the Weber Canyon fire.
“I was pleased with the way we kept the intensity up during the whole game,” McDaniel said. “We’re going to need to do that again come Saturday.”