High school boys soccer: Lewis Knecht hat trick pushes American Fork past Lone Peak

Led by a hat trick from Lewis Knecht, American Fork rebounded quite nicely from a tough triple overtime loss to Lehi, shutting out a strong Lone Peak side and coming away with the victory 3-0 Friday.

“I thought they played fantastic. I thought that our boys today after a really, really rough loss to Lehi bounced back with a really professional performance. I loved their energy, and I love the recommitment that they had to try to establish themselves back into region and get themselves ready for state,” said American Fork coach Josh Winn.

It was very much a defensive battle in the first half, with both teams struggling to get any high-quality shots off. Momentum swayed to American Fork in a big way midway through the second half, though, when Knecht decided to take the game over.

With 26 minutes left in the game, Miller Hall found himself going toward goal and was taken down in the box by a Lone Peak defender, resulting in a penalty.

Knecht stepped up to the spot and calmly converted the penalty kick for his first goal of the game to give the home side a 1-0 advantage.

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Knecht doubled the lead just five minutes later. After a Lone Peak shot was saved, American Fork found itself in transition and Knecht was able to race past the Lone Peak defensive side and calmly place the shot past the keeper for the 2-0 score.

“We kind of decided that we would sit a little in a mid-block and try to play on the counter, so it was very intentional. We knew that Lewis was fast enough so that we could exploit that and kind of take advantage. We waited to kind of suck them in a little bit and then try to go ahead and get them on the counter, so it worked out,” Winn said.

Knecht was able to get his hat trick with six minutes left in the game when the Lone Peak goalkeeper was unable to handle an American Fork free kick, and Knecht quickly pounced on the rebound to seal the victory.

If American Fork can continue to put together performances similar to what it did against Lone Peak, Winn likes his team’s chances as they get further into region and head toward the postseason.

“I think it was incredible to take a team as talented as Lone Peak with that kind of ability and be able to shut them down,” Winn said. “We limited them to really just one decent shot on goal. If we can consistently do that, we can go up against anybody in state.”