DRAPER — Tyrell Farnes has enjoyed an outstanding season between the posts at Weber High. His memories got a little sweeter during Friday night's 5A championship game.
With a raucous crowd cheering throughout the shootout, Farnes stoned Brighton's fourth penalty-kick attempt, and when teammate Brad Radle buried Weber's fifth kick, the party was on in North Ogden.
Farnes' save lifted No. 3 Weber to a 1-0 shootout victory over top-ranked Brighton, and earned the school its first-ever soccer state championship. Weber won the shootout 5-3.
"He came up big for us the last couple of days," said Weber coach Kenny Beus. "He did a good job of getting a glove on it."
In a shootout, all the pressure is on the shooters. That's why the goalie often just guesses which direction the shot will go, and dives blindly. That's exactly what Farnes did on Brighton's first three successful shots, but on the fourth he dove to his right and made the save
"I knew I could get one sooner or later," said Farnes.
During Weber's semifinal shootout victory over Davis the night before, Farnes made two shootout saves, including the clinching save on the Darts' last shot.
Farnes' success the night before actually gave Beus a little bit of a false sense of security when the championship went to a shootout.
Weber's semifinal opponent, Davis, won its quarterfinal game in a shootout, but that experience meant nothing when it lost a shootout in the semifinals. Beus admits he was a little fearful about duplicating Davis' example of following up a shootout victory with a shootout loss.
The Warriors' first four shooters, Garrett Swift, Brian Doke, Andrew Morris and Blake Pulver, all buried their kicks before Farnes made the big save and Radle buried the winning kick.
"This is big for the kids; they deserve it," said Beus. "They worked hard all year and never gave up."
Brighton came out and dominated the opening 20 minutes of the game, but Weber settled down and enjoyed the better run of play in the last 20 minutes. The second half was much of the same as both teams had their moments, but in most situations the defenders snuffed out any attacks.
Brighton's Jordan Bryner enjoyed the game's best scoring chance in the 72nd minute, but he sent his three-yard volley over the crossbar. Seven minutes earlier, Brighton defender Ryan Miller pushed up on a free kick, but his header hit the crossbar.
In overtime, the Bengals again had two excellent scoring chances. The best came in the 85th minute when Bryner chipped a centering pass that glanced off the crossbar and over.
"We dodged some bullets in the overtime," said Beus.
Aside for the occasional scoring chance by Brighton, Weber's defense, anchored by Austin Anderson and Steve Hatch, did an excellent job of keeping the Bengals' high-octane offense in check.
"Our defense has been pretty consistent all year, and coming in we knew we'd be OK," said Beus.
While Weber was busy enjoying its first state title, Brighton was dealing with the sting of coming up short in two of the last three state championship games.
"I couldn't be any prouder of my team," said Brighton coach Russ Boyer.
E-mail: jedward@desnews.com