St. George • Snow Canyon coach Kenny Kunde spent extra time after practice with groups of his players working on penalty kicks after the Region 9 regular season ended.
Each day for “about 10 to 15 minutes,” Kunde said the goal was to get his Warriors ready for what transpired on their home field Saturday afternoon.
Snow Canyon didn’t miss any of its penalty kicks, and sophomore goalkeeper Megan Rodgers came up with two clutch saves to help the Warriors beat the Logan Grizzlies 4-2 in the Class 4A girls’ soccer quarterfinal matchup. The Region 9 champion advanced to the state semifinals for the third straight season after neither team produced a goal through 100 minutes of play.
“We’ve been playing well toward the end of region, and 4A has some really tough teams,” Kunde said. “These kids have responded. In the first half, we were a little too focused on what they do and not what we do. We corrected that in the second half, got a lot more opportunities and played a lot better.”
PLAYER OF THE GAME <br>Snow Canyon sophomore goalkeeper Megan Rodgers made two clutch saves in the round of penalty kicks as the Warriors beat the Logan Grizzlies to advance to the 4A semifinals.
Both sides had good scoring chances throughout the game, but Rodgers traded big saves with her counterpart in goal, Logan’s Siuana Pauni. The Grizzlies, the No. 2 seed from Region 12, had their best chance to solve Rodgers in regulation in the 70th minute, but they couldn’t get a clean shot away in a big goal-mouth scramble.
The Warriors had the better of the opportunities in both 10-minute overtime periods, including a pair of corner kicks in the final two minutes, but they were turned away by Pauni each time.
When the penalty-kick round came, Rodgers was able to stop a Kennedy Michel shot that helped the Warriors stay in front at 2-1. After both kickers connected on the third attempt, Snow Canyon senior Jacie Mooring netted what proved to be the game-winner.
Once Rodgers moved to her right and stopped a shot from Logan’s Megan Hollingsworth, the celebration of another trip to the semifinals kicked off.