Wade, Baker lead Davis back to 5A soccer final, will face Weber

DRAPER — If you had told Davis High midfielder Olivia Wade that the Darts would have been held to one goal against Fremont in the Class 5A Girls State Soccer Tournament, she would've been worried her team's perfect record might not have stood up.

But it did, and the Darts are headed back to the state final to defend their championship.

Wade did all the scoring about 90 seconds into the match, finishing from the right edge of the box into the top shelf to give Davis (20-0) a 1-0 win over the Silver Wolves (16-1-2) Tuesday afternoon at Juan Diego High School.

"Honestly, I thought we were going to need a lot more than that," Wade said. "But I'm so grateful we were able to come out with the win. I'm most excited about that."

It almost didn't hold up, save for several second-half defensive efforts by the Darts' sophomore goalkeeper. Kendyl Baker made four saves to earn the shutout for Davis, including a fantastic effort to punch Courtney Talbot's shot from distance into the crossbar with two minutes remaining.

"Whenever I know it's toward the end of a game, I always tell myself a big save is always coming," Baker said. "That's what I did. I was expecting it; I was confident with it, and it worked out."

Mikayla Colohan assisted on Wade's goal, feeding the BYU commit with a ball seconds after kickoff that the U-17 girls national team fixture buried from the right corner of the box.

"I love that girl more than anything," Wade said of Colohan, another BYU commit. "She's given me probably 90 percent of my assists this season. I'm so grateful for her. She's one of the best players I've ever played with, and she's able to give me another great opportunity to score that I could put in."

But an offense that has scored 108 goals on the season and averaged 5.6 goals per game during the year relied heavily on its defense.

The backstop that has only given up eight goals fared well on its own, though. Besides Baker's four saves, the Davis center back tandem of Haylee Cacciacarne and Mia Stoddard anchored a defense that added two blocked shots and nearly a dozen clearances as Fremont pushed for the equalizer for 78 minutes.

"Our defense is phenomenal. They are the best in the whole state. It's an honor to be working with such great defense," Wade said, singling out Cacciacarne and Stoddard. "They work so hard all game. We're very fortunate to have them on our team. People like them are our leaders, and they are able to take control of the game. It was great."

Ireland Dunn nearly doubled the advantage 30 minutes into the match, but her back-to-back shots were adeptly saved by Fremont goalkeeper Shyann Jones. The senior led a Fremont team that hadn't lost on the year before Tuesday, and she staved off six shots on goal by a potent Davis attack.

If not for one sublime effort from Wade in the second minute, things might have been different for the Silver Wolves.

"They came at us hard in the second half, and we had to weather that storm," Davis coach Souli Phongsavath said. "In the second half, we had chances to put the game away and we didn't. I thought maybe it would come back to haunt us, especially in that great save by Kendyl that kept us in the game. Right now, a win is a win, and we'll take it."

As such, the Darts return to the state final one year after they defeated Lone Peak 2-1 at Rio Tinto Stadium.

"The old adage that defense wins championship is 100 percent true. It's especially true in the playoffs, where these games are really tight and you see that happen," Phongsavath said.

"I would love to get both (offense and defense) clicking at the same time in this playoff run, and I don't think we have been as much. But it's great when certain games you can rely on offense and other games on defense."

Relying on its defense isn't a bad thing, either, for Davis. The Darts' postseason run to the title in 2014 included a 2-1 extra-time win over Brighton in the semifinals before the championship heroics on the home field of Real Salt Lake.

"It means everything to us, especially for these seniors," Baker said. "They've been wanting it for so long, and it's amazing that we've come back this year. I'm so happy for all these girls."

Davis will face 5A championship match debutant Weber in the state final Friday at Rio Tinto Stadium.

WEBER 1, LONE PEAK 1 — At Juan Diego High, Weber goalkeeper Hannah Johnson had a sneaky feeling the Warriors might need penalty kicks if they wanted to knock off returning state finalist Lone Peak in the Class 5A Girls State Soccer Tournament.

It's a good thing she practiced.

Johnson made three saves in the shootout, and Weber eliminated the Knights from the tournament, 3-2, after both teams finished regulation with a 1-1 draw Tuesday night at Juan Diego High School.

"We've been practicing for three practices, so we were ready," said Johnson, who has only allowed five goals in the regular season. "I kind of felt like we could go into PKs. I already had a lot of previous experience with PK shootouts, so I was really confident going into it. I think the practice helped my teammates a lot."

The Warriors (15-2-2) advanced to the first 5A state final in school history, where they will meet undefeated Davis (20-0) in the championship match at 7 p.m. MT Friday at Rio Tinto Stadium.

"These girls deserve it," Weber coach Felipe Diaz said. "They had an amazing season. They fought for the whole game, and a finish like this had to happen. Lone Peak is a really good team. It was a close game the whole time, and I think it was the only way to end this game."

After a scoreless first half, Lone Peak (15-3-1) struck first just 51 seconds after the break when Breesa Nawahine weaved through traffic and fired a ball into the back of the net to stake a 1-0 lead.

But Weber didn't hang its head. Instead, defender Payton Roylance — spurred by a feeling that she could have done more on the opening goal — finished a counterattack less than three minutes later to tie the game on a close-range shot fed by Ellie Maughan.

"I just thought that I needed to get the goal back," Roylance said. "So I went back hard, the ball was by the net, and I shot it and made it."

Lone Peak narrowly outshot Weber 4-3 through regulation as the game slowed down extensively after both goals. But the Warriors picked it up in the shootout when Johnson provided the spark Weber needed.

The senior saved the first attempt by Lone Peak's Ryan Virgil, then made two more saves as the two sides forced extra kicks while knotted at 2-2.

Then, on the sixth penalty kick round, the Warriors had a breakthrough. Hannah Wheelwright converted from the spot, and Johnson dived to her right, stretched out and palmed McKenna Kondel's effort to send the Warriors to the state championship final.

"I've never been in a state championship before, so I'm super excited," Johnson said. "We worked hard, we had injuries, and we worked through them. This means a lot to our team and our community."

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