Set piece delivers Davis to 'unexpected' 6A girls soccer title over rival Farmington

HERRIMAN — Set pieces, set pieces, set pieces.

In a game between two rival schools separated by less than 10 miles, where groups of players often go to the same middle school and congregate in the same neighborhoods, and where players don't shake hands but hug after every match, the smallest detail often proves to be the difference.

For Davis High, those details involved a set piece Friday afternoon.

Kayla Wade headed home the only goal of the match on a corner kick midway through the first half, and Davis went on to win its second state championship in three years with a 1-0 victory over Region 1 rival Farmington at Zions Bank Stadium.

"My coach always says set pieces win games," Wade said. "Set pieces are the most important thing ever.

"It's a practice thing. All of my teammates work so hard, put in hours and hours on them, and this makes it all worth it."

With the win, Davis (14-5) clinched its sixth state title in program history, tied for the third-most in state history and the most among schools currently in Utah's largest classification. It's also the fifth state title for head coach Souli Phongsavath, all since 2014.

Tradition never graduates, the tenured coach likes to tell his players, and Friday afternoon added to a tradition of Davis girls soccer that includes championships and three Deseret News Ms. Soccer award winners in his tenure.

But this wasn't like Davis' previous titles. For starters, the young Darts were just 10-5 after the regular season, tied for the third-best team in Region 1 with an 8-4 record, and lost to 5A Viewmont in the third match of the season.

If this had been a rebuilding campaign, no one would've blamed the Darts.

No one, that is, except the players who know of the tradition and the titles that came before them.

"You're held to the highest standard," Wade said. "Tradition is what you fight for.

"I think the tradition is what makes you fight so hard to keep going."

A young team had to go through some growing pains, and region losses to Syracuse and that same Farmington team they faced Friday (that beat them 1-0 back on Sept. 27 less than two weeks before the playoffs began) helped expedite those growing pains.

But then something happened in the postseason: the Darts started to believe.

Death. Taxes. Davis girls soccer in the playoffs.

"To me, what's special about this year it it was so unexpected," said Phongsavath, who improved to 254-55 all-time at Davis. "We lost a couple games early, had a lot of injuries, and lost some games including against a 5A team. To be able to do this is amazing.

"I've been very fortunate to be in several of these before, and win some as well. But this is probably the most unexpected state championship that we've had. That's no knock on them; it's their heart and their grit that was able to do it. I'm super proud of them."

The defense helped, too.

Davis entered the match with a pair of double-digit goal scorers in Emery Jacobs (18 goals) and Olivia Flint (17 goals). But two teams that know each other like Davis and Farmington weren't going to be taken by surprise by the early standouts.

Wade gave the Darts the only lead they would need in the 28th minute, bounding a free header off a corner kick from Brooklyn Phongsavath into the back of the net for a 1-0 lead with her second goal of the year.

Davis used its suffocating defense the rest of the way, playing well into the corner of the wider field that hosts Real Salt Lake's third-division affiliate Real Monarchs on the west end of the Salt Lake Valley.

"For us, it was scary because the thought of losing to your big-time rival. Most of those kids should've gone to Davis High, had that new school not opened up," Phongsavath said. "It was big, it put a lot of pressure on us. I'm just super proud of how they responded."

In eight seasons under Phongsavath, the Darts have never been knocked out before the state quarterfinals — and that only happened once. Davis has five championships since 2014, another championship appearance where it lost one of two in back-to-back finals with American Fork, and a semifinal appearance against fellow Davis County rival Layton.

"We defend the tradition. Tradition is a big deal for us," Phongsavath said. "I think when we step on to the field, everyone wants a shot at us. It's that mentality that when we go out there, we have something to prove. We're going to get everybody's best game, and that's what these girls did. They stepped up when it mattered."

That, and they played for each other, Wade added.

"That's just what we do," Wade said. "I think that's the most important thing in soccer: playing for each other, because you love each other."

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