High school boys soccer: Lone Peak gets over the hump, finally advances to a 6A final; Farmington beats Mountain Ridge emotional semifinal

Here’s a recap of Tuesday’s 6A state tournament semifinals at Zions Bank Stadium, with Lone Peak and Farmington prevailing to advance to the final.

Farmington 3, Mountain Ridge 1

There weren’t a lot of dry eyes on the Mountain Ridge sideline after Tuesday’s 6A semifinal loss to Farmington, and the loss was only partly responsible.

Mountain Ridge sophomore Gray Zarogoza passed away the night before the match, and his teammates had to take the field less and play in his honor shortly after the unimaginable loss.

Rescheduling the match really wasn’t an option because of graduations this week and facility availability, so the went ahead as scheduled Tuesday afternoon.

It wasn’t just another game for either side, and Farmington coach Britain Thomas tried to convey that message to his players ahead of their 3-1 win.

“What we asked for, just under the circumstances, was that they’d be their best as a player and be an exceptional human being today. Nobody should have to deal with that kind of loss, and we still wanted to compete and win out of respect for our opponent, but just really pay our respects and just make sure that we were sportsmanlike,” said Thomas.

“The fact that they like showed up and played for him, and that his parents were here is just unbelievable. A lot of gratitude to them for showing up and giving us a super hard game. We’re so sorry for their loss,” added Thomas.

For Mountain Ridge coach Eric Arthur, he said the team had a very emotional meeting on Tuesday morning, but with every hearts the team was ready to play for their sophomore teammate.

In a way, Arthur said there were positives to being able to grieve together as a team in the lead up to the match and during the match.

“I told them whatever we do, we do it together and we do it as a team,” said Arthur.

Prior to the game, the team’s held a 21-second momentum of silence out of respect to Zarogoza’s jersey number. After the opening kickoff, both teams took a knee for 21 seconds.

“All these guys are friends in the soccer word, so kind of a tribute to acknowledge the death of their player,” said Thomas.

After the post-match handshake, the teams lined the midfield circle for another lengthier moment of silence for their peer, with Thomas presenting a condolences bouquet of flowers to Zarogoza’s family who were in attendance to support their son’s friends and teammates.

Thomas was extremely proud of the performance his players put in as a they were respectful of their opponents, but also going out and executing an effective game plan to secure the victory and advance to Friday’s 6A final against Lone Peak.

The Phoenix got a fortunate bounce in the 33rd minute to open the scoring on a long ball, it doubled the lead in the 56th minute on Kade Mackintosh finish.

While Farmington certainly got the favorable bounce on the opening goal, it was on the wrong end of much more bizarre sequence in the 67th minute as Mountain Ridge cut the deficit to 2-1.

It was the type of blooper goal Thomas said he’s seen plenty of times in his life, “but only on YouTube.”

Farmington’s keeper came off this line to clear a dangerous ball near the top of the box, but instead of smashing the ball up field, he nailed his own defender with the ball, which then popped 40 feet into the air and backward dropping harmlessly into the back of the net for the own goal.

The goal gave Mountain Ridge brief hope of a comeback, but Farmington sealed the game in the 78th minute on a calm finish by Dax Patrick.

Farmington will now turn its attention to coming up with a game plan to try and take down top-seed Lone Peak. It will have to do so without center back Jax Arnold, who was red carded in the final 90 seconds aren’t denying Mountain Ridge with potential goal scoring opportunity just outside the box.

6A/5A/4A/3A/2A state tournament scores and schedules

Lone Peak 2, Salt Lake Academy 0

It’s been four years in the making, but Lone Peak’s seniors finally achieved one of their goals: make a final. Simply making a final isn’t end goal — that opportunity will come on Friday — but after three years of playoff failure, Tuesday’s 6A semifinal win was a huge sigh of relief.

Lone Peak scored a goal in each half and then senior keeper Sam Parker came up clutch in some frantic final minutes as the top-ranked Knights held off a late push from No. 4 seed Salt Lake Academy for the 2-0 win at Zions Bank Stadium.

“For these boys, especially the seniors, I mean, it’s the world. Lone Peak’s been in this position a lot, yet we have come up short for whatever reason. And these guys that have been here four years, it’s been their goal to get over that hump,” said Lone Peak coach Kyle Hartman. “It means the world to our school for these boys to have this opportunity now to play for a state championship.”

Three years ago as the No. 1 seed, Lone Peak lost to No. 12 Syracuse in the semifinals. Two years ago it lost to Bingham in penalties in the quarterfinals, and then last year it lost to Bingham again in PKs in the semis.

Things appear to be lining up for Lone Peak this year, though. After finally beating Bingham in PKs in last week’s quarterfinals, the Knights got over the semifinal jinx against Salt Lake Academy.

“We’ve come short the last couple of years. For us seniors especially, like our freshman year, there was a big upset against Syracuse. It just never feels good to get upset. We’ve been playing so well in the playoffs, but we take it one game at a time,” said Parker. “I think that’s the main difference between this year and last year’s team, is we’re only focused on our next opponent. And now we do have one opponent to finally focus on, so we’re excited for that.”

That opponent is the winner of the Mountain Ridge-Farmington semifinal game, with the teams meeting in the 6A championship on Friday at 1 p.m. at Zions Bank Stadium.

The Knights struck first in the 25th minute on a great one-time finish from Blake Stuart. A Salt Lake Academy defender cleared the initial corner kick delivery at the near post, but Stuart was first to the ball as it landed near the top of the box, banging his shot just inside the post for the 1-0 lead.

Two minutes into the second half, Lone Peak pounced on a defensive miscue to double the lead.

A Salt Lake defender tried to play the ball back to his keeper under pressure from Lone Peak’s Patrick Stevenson, but he didn’t pass it nearly hard enough as Stevenson got to the ball first and tapped it in for the 2-0 lead.

Despite the two-goal cushion, Hartman said the lead never felt safe until the final whistle.

“It’s 80 minutes. Whether you’re up or down, you’ve got to have the intensity and you’ve got to keep fighting. You can’t let up. The moment you let up, you open the door for the team to come back,” said Hartman. “And that was what our message was at halftime. We may be up one goal, but we’ve got to play like we’re down.”

Lone Peak will now carry a 14-game winning streak into the state championship as it seeks its first boys soccer title since 2005.