It looked for awhile like Mountain View and Brighton might play soccer all night Wednesday at Hillcrest High. Neither could score in 80 minutes of regulation nor in two 10-minute overtimes.
So after 100 minutes it went to a shootout in which each side made three of five shots. So it went to a sudden-death shootout. And there the issue was finally decided when Paul Clark, probably the smallest player on the field, fired a shot into the net after his counterpart from Brighton had missed on his turn.Although Clark's was the fifth goal scored in the shootout, the game will go in the record books as a 1-0 victory for the Bruins who move on to play Davis, a 2-0 winner over Cyprus, at 6:15 p.m. Thursday at Hillcrest in the 4A semifinals.
Alta and Viewmont earned the other semifinal berths, the Hawks with a 3-1 overtime win over Taylorsville and the Vikings with a 6-1 victory over Hillcrest.
"That was exciting," said Mountain View Coach Dave Woolley. "We have a lot of repsect for Brighton. We've never beaten them in three years."
In regulation time, Brighton seemed to be the dominant team, but the Bengals could never get a goal past Brian Jolley. In the first 20 minutes of the second half when they had the wind at their backs, the Bengals had 10 shots on goal, while the Bruins had none.
The Bengals also had a flurry of shots in the final five mintues but never found the net.
In the shootout, after Mountain View's top player, Ben Cahoon, had his shot stopped, all Brighton needed was a goal by its top scorer Darin Wickens. But his shot went over the top and the Bruins stayed alive with a goal by Steve Hilton.
In the sudden death shootout, Aaron Menlove scored for Brighton and Jon Lovell countered for Mountain View. Then after the Bengals' Travis Jones missed the goal to the right, it was up to Clark, the sophomore who weighs in at 109 pounds soaking wet.
Woolley asked Clark if he wanted to be the shooter or let someone else go. Clark paused a moment and said, "I can do it coach."
So he trotted onto the field and after getting the signal from the referee, smacked a shot into the right side of the net.
"I was pretty scared, but I knew I could make it," said Clark.
For the Bengals, the defending state 4A champs, their season is over, since the tournament is a single-elimination affair this year.
Alta 3, Taylorsville 1 OT: The Hawks scored twice in the first overtime period to move on to the semifinals.
The two teams had battled to a 1-1 tie in regulation as Cory Hays scored off a Shane Jones assist in the first half for Alta and John Larrabee scored in the second half for Taylorsville.
Then eight minutes into the overtime, Hays scored again off a Jones assist and a minute later Jones scored unassisted.
"Our whole defense played well _ it was a good team effort," said Alta Coach Lee Mitchell.
Viewmont 6, Hillcrest 1: The home field proved to be no advantage for the Huskies as the Vikings cruised to a 4-0 halftime lead and onto victory. John Garlock and Jason Pitt each scored a pair of goals for Viewmont while Carlan Reese had the lone Hillcrest goal.
Davis 2, Cyprus 0: The Region 1 runner-ups took care of the Region 3 champions as Brian Kynaston scored both goals.