RSL Women rout Colorado in regular season finale


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SALT LAKE CITY — Real Salt Lake Women knew they couldn’t wrap up a United Women’s Soccer western conference title Thursday night.

But they came as close as they could get to it.

Kira Sharp had two assists, and Salt Lake had five different goal-scorers in a 5-0 rout of the Colorado Pride in the final game of the inaugural semipro league’s regular season at East High.

Sharp’s first assist was to former Utah State star Natalie Norris just 10 minutes into the match following a corner kick. Norris took the outswinger, banged it off her head, and the high-arching collision crossed the goal line to give RSL (4-2-2, 14 points) a 1-0 advantage.

Oregon midfielder Bayley Bruner doubled the advantage in the 34th minute, chipping the keeper from the edge of the 18-yard box after a setup from the former Metro State standout Sharp, the longest-tenured RSL Women player with nine years under her belt.

“She’s been with this organization since the beginning, and her maturity level was big,” RSL Women head coach Mark Davis said. “The girls respect her, I respect her, and she’s a player that is the spark.

“She’s very mature and strong on the ball, goes at defenders and just makes things happen.”

BYU midfielder Bizzy Phillips Bowen converted a penalty kick 10 minutes after halftime, then assisted on Cougar teammate Madie Lyons’ goal just three minutes later to give Salt Lake a 4-0 advantage — and the rout was on.

Jessica Vander Veur capped the scoring with two minutes remaining, converting a one-on-one chance with the keeper for the five-goal margin that put RSL five points up on second-place Houston (3-3-0, 9 points) for the Western Conference title.

Former Weber State goalkeeper Rebecca Ritchie earned the shutout for RSL Women.

“They executed the game plan,” Davis said. “We were extremely hard to break through, and frankly this is a good team and we just executed and put in five goals against one of the best teams in the West. This was one of the best performances we could’ve had.”

The two conference champions will meet for the inaugural UWS championship July 30. The Aces have two games remaining, as well as third-place Santa Clarita (2-1-2, 8 points) that sits just one point back of Houston.

“Now we just sit and wait and watch and hope that a team draws or loses. In a small season like ours, every match matters so much,” Davis said. “We fell short a couple of times, and we’ve got to be sharper and tougher. But overall, today’s performance was exactly what we asked the girls to do.”

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Sean Walker

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