5A girls' soccer: Pitched battle

Sandy » Alta goalkeeper Tashia Long felt the ball hit her hands and it was over. Her teammates erupted in celebratory cheers as they watched Long make the save to lift the Hawks over Davis in the state title game at Rio Tinto Stadium on Friday.

After 80 minutes of a hard-fought regulation, two overtime periods and a shootout that featured seven kickers from both sides, it came down to one save.

"It was such a relief," Long said. "A shootout is the scariest thing. The whole team is depending on you."

Long stopped a shot by Davis' Katelyn McLeod, giving Alta the 3-3 (6-5 SO) win for a state record-breaking fourth straight title.

"It's very surreal. The sweetest

thing is that the kids will remember this for the rest of their lives," Alta coach Lee Mitchell said. "Davis didn't give us an inch. We had to play as a team and do anything possible."

It took a team effort on Alta's part because Davis was focusing on slowing down Kealia Ohai. She used her speed to get away but constantly had multiple defenders on her. The Darts did a good job of keeping her from getting good looks but that opened things up for her teammates, especially Rebekah Wooden.

Two minutes into the game, she scored on a header off of a corner kick to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead.

"It happened so quick, I didn't even know I had scored," Wooden said. "I just turned around and it was in the net."

She

scored in virtually the same way two minutes into the second half. But Davis was never too far behind. Midfielder Sammi Swan scored the equalizer in the 24th minute. Camille Ostler scored the second goal to tie things up in the 55th minute.

Although the Darts never let Alta out of their sights, it seemed the Hawks had the game in hand when Ashley May scored on a free kick with 17 minutes to play.

When stoppage time started, an Alta win seemed inevitable but the Darts kept attacking the net and it paid off.

With an assist from Katie Taylor, Mackenzie Harrison got the ball in front of the net and scored with about 10 seconds left in stoppage time to force the extra period.

"It showed how much heart and determination we had," said Davis coach Souli Phongsavath. "It would be easy to hang your head but they battled back."

Both overtime periods were dominated by Alta as the Hawks created more shots on goal. The Hawks missed on two chances to put it away in the extra periods but made sure that didn't happen in the shootout.

"I played as a sophomore and a junior but it's so much better when you're a senior," Long said. "It's the greatest feeling."

mthach@sltrib.com