SOUTH JORDAN — The defending champions are still very much alive in the 5A state soccer tournament.
Spurred on by second-half goals from Scott Whitesides and Kellan Christensen, the Layton Lancers overcame a one-goal halftime deficit to beat second-ranked Bingham 2-1 Thursday.
"They know they're still the team to beat," said Layton coach Rick Talamantez. "They know the regular season was just practice for the playoffs."
Many wondered, however, if the Lancers were capable of simply flipping the "on" switch just because it was playoff time. Talamantez had very high expectations about his team entering this season, but an 8-6-2 record and a fourth-place finish in Region 1 was hardly anything to brag about.
"I'm a firm believer that our region was really tough," said Talamantez. "Due to a tough region, we were going to lose some games."
Layton's reward for a so-so regular season was an opening-round game at Bingham, fresh off its upset over previously unbeaten Brighton last week.
Aided by an above-average wind in the first half, the Miners dominated the opening 40 minutes, which included Nick Shield's tally in the ninth minute.
As worried as the Lancers could've been, Talamantez said they weren't. He confidently reminded his players about their skills and told them to keep plugging away. After all, the wind was now Layton's ally.
It took Layton just five minutes to equalize as Whitesides unleashed a low line drive underneath Bingham's keeper from 10 yards away.
"That first goal was big," said Talamantez, who added that his team began playing relaxed soccer with the game knotted at 1-1.
In the 56th minute, Bingham nearly regained the lead on a header by Denton Starnes, but Layton keeper Zach Peterson dropped quickly to smother the close-range shot.
Despite playing mostly defensive soccer in the second half, Bingham nearly took the lead again on another quality shot by Starnes in the 72nd minute. That near-goal quickly turned into a nightmare for Bingham. Peterson's 60-yard punt downfield was corralled by Christensen, who worked a beautiful give-and-go with Jared Steed. The end result was a perfect 20-yard shot by Christensen that ended Bingham's season.
Layton will play region foe Davis in a quarterfinal game next Tuesday at Layton.
An otherwise clean soccer game was marred a little bit by a fight in the bleachers between several parents in the waning minutes of the soccer game. After Bingham's administrators broke things up, the police arrived to make sure no further altercations occurred in the parking lot.
In other 5A soccer playoff games Thursday:
RIVERTON 1, TAYLORSVILLE 0: Silverwolves goalkeeper Adam Richardson blanked the Warriors to lead his team to the first-round victory. Rob Hansen fired the lone goal for Riverton while Tyler Arens played solid defense.
WEBER 4, WEST JORDAN 0: Two goals from Andrew Morris, and one each from Austin Okelberry and Skyler Campbell, lifted the Warriors to an easy first-round victory over the Jaguars. Weber's Tyrell Farnes earned the shutout.
DAVIS 1, COTTONWOOD 0 (2 OT): The Darts eked out the victory with a goal in the final minute of the second overtime.
VIEWMONT 3, ALTA 2: The Vikings' Jaden Evans scored a pair of goals as Viewmont escaped Alta's first-round upset bid. Viewmont beat Alta 6-1 earlier this year, but Alta nearly avenged that loss in a big way. Alta's goals were scored by Joseph Stewart and Jason Stowell.
JORDAN 3, SKYLINE 1: The 'Diggers outscored the Eagles 2-0 in the first half en route to a 3-1 victory. Alex Blaisdell, Sina Alipour and Trevor Fabert each notched one goal for Jordan.
BRIGHTON 3, FREMONT 2: The top-ranked Bengals needed second-half goals from Jantzen Romney, Jordan Bryner and Matt King to rally past the upset-minded Silverwolves. Fremont led 2-0 at halftime, thanks to goals from Trent Hubbard and Jace Ropelato.
NORTHRIDGE 5, HUNTER 0:John Christy and Jaron Milles each scored a pair of goals in leading the Knights to an easy victory over the outmanned Wolverines, who were playing with their fifth- and sixth-string goalkeepers due to injuries.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com