Defending 5A state champion Olympus is starting to hit its stride at the midway point of the 2025 season.
After a 1-3 record in the preseason against some of the state’s top teams, the Titans have rebounded quickly with four straight region wins, including Thursday night’s 1-0 victory over rival Brighton.
In the first meeting between the programs since last year’s 5A final was decided in a penalty shootout, Eliza Anderson’s goal shortly before halftime was the difference for Olympus.
Olympus has outscored the opposition 18-3 during its region win streak, which included a 9-1 victory over Alta earlier this week.
During a six-day stretch last month, Olympus lost one-goal games to Davis, Lone Peak and Corner Canyon. Head coach Jamie Evans thought her team was competitive in all three losses, and that contributed to the quick turnaround of results
“I believe it’s what sets us up for success through the season. I want to play the best teams in the state preseason to set an expectation that we show up for every game,” said Evans.
“I think this group is very, very confident, but they also understand with those hard losses at the beginning of the season that they have to show up.”
It helps to have quality on the field, and Olympus has plenty of that with two-thirds of its top contributors back from last year’s title team.
Among them are center backs Emma Peterson and Cammie Bontempo. They were instrumental in the shutout defensively, particularly in the second half.
After the Titans went ahead shortly before halftime on Anderson’s goal, Evans thought her team’s level dropped after halftime. She believes her players reacted a bit slow to 50-50 and second balls, which allowed Brighton to level out of the possession in the second half.
“I think we lost our composure and we lost possession that second half and we got a little frantic and I think that happens when you feel a little stressed in a game,” said Evans.
Thanks to the organization at the back by Oly’s Peterson and Bontempo, the Bengals didn’t threaten much in the final third despite the possession as they were shutout for the third straight game.
The same could be said for the Brighton’s defensive anchor Londyn Green, a returning second team all-stater from a year ago. She was instrumental in holding Olympus to just one goal in the first half despite repeated possession in dangerous areas.
“I think in that first half we were finding the space well,” Evans said. “I think we had some good chances. We definitely need to shoot more, but yeah, I thought that first half we were finding good spaces. I feel like our forwards were really working hard up there to find that space.”
The lone goal on Thursday came through Anderson, who was simply trying to whip a cross into the box from near the left sideline in the 36th minute.
The ball bounced into the box and seemed to catch everyone by surprise — including Brighton’s keeper — as it skipped untouched just inside the far post.
Evans herself admits she’s not sure how the ball found the back of the net with all the traffic in the box, but reiterated that good things happen when you possess the ball in dangerous places.