High school soccer: Waterford freshman burns Maeser Prep; American Heritage survives St. Joseph

Here’s a recap of the 2A semifinal soccer games held on Thursday at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.

Waterford 4, Maeser Prep 0

Thursday’s opening semifinal was over before it even started. Waterford freshman Berklee Hasebi torched Maeser Prep and scored four goals in the opening 12 minutes to earn a 4-0 win.

So far, 2A’s championship race seems to be Waterford’s to lose.

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The Ravens own a 17-1 season record, shutting out 15 of its opponents and scoring an average of 6.9 goals per game.

The versatility of its offense was apparent in the box score of its dominant quarterfinal and semifinal wins.

In its 10-0 quarterfinal win over Beaver on Saturday, Milana Massinople scored six goals, while Hasebi scored four on Thursday.

Waterford has three players who have hit the 20-goal mark, with Whitney Spanos tallying 20, Massinople 29 and Hasebi 30.

“My gosh, its crazy and absolutely insane,” said Waterford head coach Jeannie Woller. “It really just shows that across the board as an offensive team, we are multi-talented and have a ton of variety and a ton of options.

“I think it shows that there’s a lot of trust in the offense, but at the same time, a lot of these goals come from possession in the defense. So it really just shows how holistic our team is in games.”

Of Hasebi’s four goals, she was helped by two assists from Massinople, one from Spanos and one from her sister, Lexee Hasebi.

“I’ve been working so hard,” Berklee Hasebi said. “My oldest sister is on this team. I’ve been watching this team for so long and I’m so happy to be on this team. So, I’m making sure I’m putting in all the extra work to really prove myself this year.”

Defensively, Waterford was stifling. It wasn’t just in the final third, but its midfield which ended Maeser’s possessions before they could develop.

Winning by a shutout in the championship game would tie Lone Peak and St. Joseph for the second-most shutouts in a single season in state history.

“They have really high expectations for themselves,” Woller said. “I think some of it comes from the coaches, but ultimately, I think they want to show each other how they want to play. They just have really high expectations for themselves and they’re going to meet it and it’s going to come from them.”

The Ravens will play for the 2A championship at America First Field on Saturday. A win would mark their eighth state championship in program history and would tie Alta and Rowland Hall for the state record.

American Heritage 2, St. Joseph 1

An early explosion of goals stagnated in favor of American Heritage as it held on for a 2-1 victory in Thursday’s semifinal against St. Joseph.

All three goals were scored in the first 15 minutes, then neither offense found the back of the net for the remainder of the semifinal. American Heritage’s Isabelle Steele scored in the first 90 seconds on a pass from Ainsley Suelzle.

But the state scoring leader, St. Joseph’s Sofia Evans, was quick to respond with her 56th goal of the year just four minutes later.

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The final goal of the game came in the 15th minute as the Patriots’ Camila Melecio took advantage of a ball in the box for the go-ahead goal.

“It feels amazing,” Melecio said. “I looked at my dad after and he was smiling and I’m just so excited that I got to do that. It wasn’t even just me, it was my team that made that possible.”

The game stalemated for the final 65 minutes, largely due to an intentional effort from American Heritage to slow the game down.

The Patriots took advantage of St. Joseph’s heliocentric offense. Evans is the clear focal point for the Jayhawks as she’s scored or assisted on 78% of their goals this season. American Heritage did its best to swarm Evans, and its efforts payed off.

“We had our midfielders keep track of Sophia Evans,” American Heritage head coach Eleonor Stafford said. “She’s a great, phenomenal player. We had Mikelle Arnson guard her the whole time and if we were going up (field), Mikelle would go up and we had our center backs watch her. Our girls were locked in from the get-go.”

The importance of all possession grew exponentially as the second half timer dwindled. Even one solid chance for Evans could spell disaster for the Patriots.

So, American Heritage instead kept the ball in the final third for nearly the entire final 20 minutes. It took corner kick after corner kick, and while it couldn’t covert any into a third goal, it kept the ball in a safe position on the field.

“We had so many shots on goal, but at least we kept possession and we kept shooting and kept trying,” Stafford said. “I tell the girls all the time, ‘If you have an open shot, just take it. I’d rather you take it rather than just hold it and then lose the ball.’ They kept going and pushing through.”

Frustration mounted for St. Joseph as its championship hopes were crushed. Jayhawks head coach Tom Evans was unhappy with the referees and he was penalized with two yellow cards after the final whistle, which resulted in a post-game red card.

American Heritage moves onto the 2A championship game, where it will face a behemoth in Waterford. In late September, the Patriots suffered an 8-1 loss to Waterford.

Despite the odds, Stafford believes her team has a chance.

“We love Waterford and we’re going to definitely bring our A-game,” she said. “I think we can win as long as everyone’s locked in. If the odds are bad, at least we’re playing a great team, and we went to the finals.”