No. 7 Davis did just enough to get by No. 2 American Fork in the 6A girls soccer quarterfinals Tuesday afternoon, picking up a hard fought 3-2 victory in extra time.
Darts’ senior forward Olivia Flint scored the golden goal a minute and a half into overtime, propelling her team past the Cavemen and into the state semifinals. The goal was Flint’s second of the day after finding the back of the net for the lone goal of the first half.
“She has stepped up,” Davis head coach Souli Phongsavath said. “(I’m) super happy for her to be able to do this in that moment and to make it happen.”
Flint’s first score gave her team a 1-0 lead heading into the half. The second half saw things began falling apart for the Darts, as sophomore Caveman Lucy Kesler scored two goals from the top of the box to give American Fork a 2-1 lead.
“I thought we played a fantastic first half,” Phongsavath said. “I thought we were unfortunate to not … score a couple more goals. But in the second half, American Fork showed a lot of grit and a lot of heart to take the lead. I’m super happy with how we responded.
“Frankly, we got dominated the second half. Instead of just hanging our heads down, we were able to equalize. We needed somebody to make a moment of brilliance.”
After equalizing, the Darts held on to force overtime.
Phongsavath had a message for his team heading into extra time: “I just said, ‘Hey, we worked too hard to get that equalizer to lose this game. We shouldn’t have hit that equalizer if we were going to lose this game in overtime.’ So we had the opportunity and we took it. We’re just super pleased.”
Once overtime began, it didn’t take long for Flint to take advantage of the opportunity, eliminating American Fork and giving her squad its second win of the tournament.
“This year has been a big roller coaster,” Phongsavath said. “We’re either really good or we’re not. This game was kind of like the epitome of that. We played really well the first half; second half we didn’t. That’s been our season.”
Davis routed Copper Hills in its first match of postseason play Tuesday, setting up the quarterfinal matchup with the Cavemen. American Fork defeated Region 4 foe Corner Canyon that same day, marking the school’s third win over the Chargers this season.
The Cavemen’s season comes to a close, ending the year with a 14-4 overall record and their first home setback in more than a month.
The Darts surge onward, remaining focused on winning two more matches.
Davis will continue its quest for the 2022 state title when it meets No. 11 Skyridge in the semifinals Tuesday at 5:30 pm. It will be the two schools’ first ever meeting. Semifinal matches will take place at Juan Diego High School. The Darts’ last state title came in 2020 in a victory over American Fork.