Sandy • They were never more than a foot apart.
With his top-ranked Brighton team in need of a jump-start, Bengals forward Taylor Fankhauser twice was able to find Matthew Coffey for goals in Brighton’s precise 3-1 victory at Jordan on Wednesday.
“We just have something between us,” Coffey said. “We just talk a lot, we just have some telepathy or something.”
Coffey and Fankhauser both were starters for Brighton a year ago, when the Bengals were the second-best team in the state throughout the season, right up until a crippling overtime loss to Alta in the Class 5A state championship.
That was when the chemistry between the two forwards — Fankhauser is now a senior, Coffey a junior — began.
“I just feel like we know what we’re going to do what we’re going to do with the ball when we get it,” Fankhauser said.
Fankhauser leads the Bengals (7-1-0, 3-0 Region 3) with five goals, but Friday he was a distributor. The first time he assisted Coffey, he beat his defender on the end-line and shot a short, quick pass to Coffey in the six-yard box. The second time, on a two-on-two, he dropped an even better pass just beyond Jordan goalkeeper Brandon Arnold, setting up Coffey perfectly.
In the second half, Fankhauser was just as effective, just to a different teammate with whom he is closely bonded. On a breakaway, he assisted his brother, junior Seth Fankhauser.
“The chemistry’s good up top,” Brighton coach Russ Boyer said, “with Taylor and Coffey — and also to Seth, the brothers have a good little thing going up there.”
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Brighton 3, Jordan 1
R Senior Taylor Fankhauser notches three assists, two to forward Matthew Coffey.
• Jordan falls to 1-5 and remains winless in Region 3.