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HERRIMAN — With one touch in the final two minutes of extra time, Brock Bennion made all the weather delays, the false starts of the season (including the postseason), and the pressure of defending the 5A state title worth it.
Bennion's set-piece goal with 1:49 left on the clock lifted Alta to a 1-0 win over 15th-seeded Olympus in Monday's semifinals at Zions Bank Stadium.
After 80 minutes of malaise and a hurried extra time, the Hawks (14-3) found the only shot that mattered when it mattered the most.
"We just kept saying, put the ball in the box, in the air, and not to their amazing goalkeeper who was catching everything," Alta coach Mackenzie Hyer said. "Our corner kicks and free kicks were right to him; we were just setting him up. I kept talking about putting the ball back in the box, and that's when good things happen.
"When everyone is running at their own goal, good things happen for us. And they may have finally listened to me."
After a first-half shutout that included a lightning delay of more than 30 minutes, Alta's Peter Affleck had the best chance in the 54th minute. But his shot from distance caromed off the chest of Olympus goalkeeper Yien Rout before the long-limbed netminder could corral the loose rebound and the two sides played to a scoreless regulation period.
But Bennion pushed across a free kick with 1:49 left in extra time to lift the Hawks within one win of breaking a tie for the most boys soccer championships in Utah High School Activities Association history with No. 10.
At one point, Hyer had to write the number of days and matches remaining in the season, after the Hawks would play in success without practicing outside due to the late winter and other complicating factors.
Such factors even complicated Monday's semifinal, which was supposed to kickoff at 2:30 p.m. but was delayed several hours due to thunderstorms in the area. After Wasatch's 1-0 win over Skyline was delayed three different times, Alta and Olympus were delayed with four minutes left in the first half.
In some ways, that might have helped the Hawks.
"In the first half, they kind of came out a little sharper," Affleck said. "We were a little less prepared. But the delay reset it, and we were able to just grind out the game after a reset and a refocus."
All that made Monday's win that much sweeter.
"It means everything. This was the goal that they had from the very beginning," Hyer said. "It's hard to see what the big picture is at the end. But they kept that in focus, and it means everything."
Top-seeded Wasps endure Eagles, weather for second title match appearance in three years
Music, an early goal, and a lengthy delay for lightning combined to send top-seeded Wasatch back to the boys soccer 5A championship game for the second time in three years.
Canon Downey scored the only goal of the match in the first half, and the Wasps survived more than an hour and a half in delays related to passing thunderstorms to survive Skyline 1-0 in a semifinal match Monday at Zions Bank Stadium.
Not that the delay made a Wasatch team nursing its 1-0 lead nervous, head coach Jared Hendry said. Maybe a little anxious, but not nervous.
"It was very loose," Hendry said. "They had some music going, and we got them some drinks, a few granola bars, bananas, oranges; it was very loose. They weren't nervous, just very much in the moment.
"They just want to get out there and play."
In a rematch of the 2021 state championship that Wasatch won 2-1 for their fourth championship in program history, the Wasps took advantage of a set piece on a wide field to take the early advantage and defend their seeding.
Wasatch (16-1) struck first midway through the first half when Downey finished off an unselfish backheel pass from Hunter Cosper that gave Wasatch a 1-0 halftime lead.
"Our team is very unselfish when it comes down to that," Hendry said. "They've been wanting to get to the championship this year. … These boys are hungry for it. They communicate so well when they get into those situations, and they're dangerous on set pieces."
That gave the 2021 champions enough to survive three separate 30-minute delays while a patch of thunderstorms rolled over the nearby Oquirrh Mountains to the east of the stadium, one in the 52nd and 64th minute of play and another as the teams were just about to resume after the second break.
Of course, being up a goal didn't hurt the loose locker room.
"They also know that our attack just keeps going and going," Hendry said. "I think that the boys knew that we were going to either put another one away, or stop them.
"They knew that if they kept loose and weren't too anxious, that we'd keep the lead or put another one in."
After the lengthy break, Dante Stock had a header in the 72nd minute that would've equalized for Skyline (12-7). But goalkeeper Jackson Medina made the save to keep the shutout and send the Wasps back to the site of their 2021 title.
