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East had already wrapped up the top seed from Region 6 in the upcoming Class 4A soccer tournament before hosting arch-rival Highland on Tuesday on senior day.

But, when the Leopards and Rams meet in any sport, the two schools guarantee a hard-fought contest.

That was certainly the case in this one as the Salt Lake City rivals battled to a 0-0 tie in a physical game that featured tremendous goalkeeping efforts by Highland's Miguel Gutierrez and East's Jack Thompson.

"It was a classic East-Highland game," said Leopard coach Rudy Schenk. "Go look at the record book and it always seems like we have games of 0-0, 1-1 or 1-0. Not a lot of goals are scored. This was a hard played, hard fought game."

East was the aggressor most of the double-overtime contest, with sophomore forward Matt Barker getting off some close-range shots and the entire Leopard forward corps blasting shots at Gutierrez, who made more than one acrobatic save

"They were pressuring him," said Highland coach Brad Kooyman. "He stepped up big when he had to. There was one he took right in the chest. That had to hurt, but he didn't shy away. He made the stops he needed to."

Even when a red card forced East to play a man short for the second overtime, the Leopards remained the aggressors. But Gutierrez and the Highland defense kept escaping close calls.

"As a team, we played better," said Gutierrez. "We were moving the ball better and were able to actually connect on some passes. Before, we would just kick the ball and run and chase. They pressured us a lot, which meant the defense had to work a lot harder. I was just out there risking myself for the team. I know my guys would do it for me, so I wanted to do it for them."

The Rams scared East a couple of times as well. Late in the second overtime, Thompson leaped high into the air to barely deflect a Highland shot that bounced off the crossbar.

Schenk said that while his team had secured the number one seed in state, it still needed a point in order to win an outright league title. The Leopards got that point Tuesday.

As for Highland, Kooyman said playing East in a tough game will help his team once it gets to state.

"We wanted to come out and play well against a top quality team," he said. "East has proven all year that if not the best, they are one of the top two or three teams. This prepared us for what we are going to face in the playoffs."

And, of course, there is the satisfaction of not losing on senior day on your biggest rivals' home field.

Twitter @tribtomwharton