Storylines<br>• Senior midfielder Bry Carson scores a goal and adds an assist in Pleasant Grove’s 3-2 win over Lone Peak.<br>• Pleasant Grove scores more goals on Lone Peak than any team had all season.<br>• Pleasant Grove has won five of its past six matches.
Pleasant Grove • Pleasant Grove took hold of second place in Region 4 with its fifth win in six matches, rallying for a 3-2 victory against Lone Peak on Tuesday in girls’ soccer action.
“We feel that way after every [win] in our region,” Pleasant Grove Lee Tortelli said. “This region is so good and we act like every region game is a playoff game — you have to. You just can’t take any game lightly in this region lightly.”
Lone Peak proved Torelli right when junior forward Kate Schirmer scored the opening goal in the sixth minute for a 1-0 lead. Pleasant Grove tied the game in the 21st minute at 1 when Bry Carson scored on a penalty kick after teammate Nicole Coon was brought down inside the penalty box.
After halftime, the Vikings continued to push forward. After narrowly missing on a few set-piece opportunities, junior defender Alyssa Carpenter was able to get her head onto a Carson corner kick and direct it to the net for a 2-1 PG lead.
“I noticed the corner kicks before that were coming straight for me, but I just missed,” Carpenter said. “I was just so hungry for that goal. It came straight for me and I just needed to finish it. As soon as we got that goal we came together and kept pushing.”
It looked like the Vikings could afford to stop pushing in the 57th minute after freshman CC Norman scored to put Pleasant Grove on top 3-1, but with a championship pedigree like Lone Peak’s, no lead is safe.
The Knights were able to make a game of it in the 66th minute when Nicole Ray’s shot from distance evaded the hands of sophomore goalkeeper Evie Brimhall who had come into the match earlier when senior Mya Massey had to be taken out for concussion protocol.
“I was freaking out,” Brimhall said about her feelings of being called into varsity action. “It was super stressful, but all the girls were so awesome. They told me ‘Evie, we believe in you and we know what you can do’. It was just about me going out and showing it.”
After her lone hiccup on the second Lone Peak goal, Brimhall settled into the game and remained calm and composed as her teammates squeezed the life out of the remainder of the game.
“It was so stressful, but it was so awesome,” Brimhall said. “That’s two wins over Lone Peak, now we just have to get one more.”