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SANDY — When American Fork’s girl's soccer team went into the locker room trailing 1-0 to Syracuse at halftime of the Class 6A state championship, the Cavemen could’ve been upset.
They could’ve been distraught.
They could’ve been flat-footed.
Instead, they were angry — and they took out their anger in the second half.
“The locker room was like, ‘You have got to be kidding me; we are not losing this game,’” American Fork freshman Josie Shepherd said. “No way in the world are we losing this game. We all had that mentality, and we came out strong.”
Shepherd tied the game just three minutes into the second half, and older sister Jamie Shepherd knotted the game-winner about 15 minutes later as the Cavemen won their first soccer state title in school history Friday with a 3-1 win over Syracuse at Rio Tinto Stadium.
“The Shepherd family is one of the most dedicated families we have. To have two sisters score in a final is like Christmas,” American Fork coach Derek Dunn said. “They come from a soccer family and they want to win. That’s exactly what they did today.”
Syracuse’s Caroline Stringfellow opened the scoring in the 17th minute, finishing off Sarah Wynn’s corner kick for her 29th goal of the season to give the Titans (17-3) a 1-0 halftime lead.
But the Shepherd sisters weren’t going to let the lead stand for long for a team that never trailed in the playoffs up to that point, blitzing the field 15-0 with wins over Layton, Northridge and Kearns.
“We’ve been down so many times in the season,” Jamie Shepherd said. “But we believed in us, I believed in us, and we just played our game. We’ve come back, and we just came out here and played our game.”
Josie Shepherd tied the match at 1-1 with a cheeky lob from the edge of the 18, placing it just under the crossbar with abandon as the Cavemen (19-1) proved they belonged.
“I trapped it, and I knew I had to hit it in the air,” the freshman said. “It went to the back post and it was a wonderful feeling.
Added her older sister: “That’s her shot. She’ll make those all day.”
Jamie Shepherd added the game-winner in the 59th minute. The junior forward redirected a cross from Rachel McCarthy inside the box to give American Fork all the scoring it would need.
“Rachel had a great setup, she put a great cross in, and it was an easy tap-in for me,” Jamie Shepherd said.
Addi Holmstead added a goal of her own, blitzing down the right side and lobbing a right-footed shot into the back of the net as the Cavemen pummeled the Titans’ goal mouth with seven shots, including five on target.
“This is the happiest thing ever,” Josie Shepherd said. “If I could do this again, it would be amazing.
“I feel like we can only go up. We only had two seniors starting this year, and there’s only going up from here.”
American Fork clinched its first girls soccer title in school history, and first in soccer since the boys team won back-to-back championships in 1984-85
“This is the biggest thing that we could do,” Dunn said. “It’s amazing, and this school has been so faithful and they deserve it. The kids deserve it, the fans deserve it, and these girls deserve it.”
Final | @afhsevents 3, @CuseGirlsSoccer 1. 3 second-half goals lead @AFGirlsSoccer to 1st state title in school history. pic.twitter.com/HcnHHkJoTz
— Sean Walker (@DSeanKSL) October 20, 2017
Even as new memories are added to the Shepherd sisters’ soccer careers, Friday afternoon at Rio Tinto Stadium will linger.
“It’s unbelievable; this is something I will never forget when I’m older,” Josie Shepherd said. “I feel like we’ve come closer together this season, driving home (from practice) with her every day … I feel like we’ve become so close.”
She isn’t the only one.
“That was so fun. I know her, I can yell at her, we can play together and read together,” Jamie Shepherd said. “It’s been so fun to play together, and so awesome to know that we have another season to play together.”
