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KAYSVILLE — When you’re undefeated, a defending champion and the current top-ranked soccer team in the state, you usually don’t need much luck to be on your side.
Nevertheless, Davis girls soccer, 6A’s No. 1 ranked team, had luck on its side it didn’t even need, and the Darts ran past Weber on their home field, 5-0, in a match that went downhill quickly after a scoreless first half. Davis improved to 6-0 on the season and collected its first win in Region 1 play, while Weber, despite already having improved from last season’s 3-13 campaign, dropped to 4-2 overall.
Coming into the matchup, Weber, the No. 3-ranked 6A team, had allowed just two goals all season long (excluding one shootout goal against Mountain Crest). It appeared primed to be another low-scoring game after the first half, but Davis coach Souli Phongsavath had a simple message at halftime to change the game — just shoot it.
“The main coaching point at halftime was just to shoot,” Coach Phongsavath said. “I though we had some decent looks in the first half, or some chances to shoot, and just didn’t.”
Once Davis started firing the ball more openly, things just started to go the Darts’ way in every possible fashion. Of Davis’s five goals on the afternoon, four of them could reasonably be filed in the you-don’t-see-that-every-day category.
The only true case of the offense actually beating the defense was the first goal of the match. In the 50th minute, sophomore midfielder Brooklyn Phongsavath delivered a solid pass, leading freshman forward Sammy Maudsley past the defense to beat Weber goalkeeper Kallie Wallace for the score.
After that, Davis seemed to settle in and just take what they were given, and they were given a lot.
“That goal, which was a great ball, I think that just kinda calmed them a bit and flipped the game,” Coach Phongsavath said.
No one benefitted from chaotic benevolence more than senior midfielder Jessi Larkin. Larkin had never scored a goal in her varsity career prior to Thursday, but on two extremely fortunate opportunities, she led the team with two goals on two shots. The first came on a high lob from midfield towards the goal, and it bounced just in front of and over Wallace’s head to score in the 58th minute.
Over the final ten minutes of the match, Davis turned what would have been an honorable defeat for the Warriors into a full-on rout.
Senior forward Emmerson Taylor scored on a header off a free kick in the 72nd minute.
Senior defender Calie Clark got a well-timed touch on the ball as it rebounded off the crossbar in the 77th minute and nudged it in for her first career goal.
In the 80th minute, Larkin got another “assist” off the goalpost and shot it in to provide the final exclamation point on a runaway victory.
“It was a really good day for me, and it gave me a huge boot of confidence,” Larkin said. “Just to get the energy under me was really good.”
Both teams will move on to their second Region 1 game and play at home next Tuesday. Davis plays host to Fremont, while Weber will welcome Farmington.
