Men’s soccer defeats Sheldon, earns League spot

By Breana Lee,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

The men’s varsity soccer team conquered Sheldon 2-1 on Tuesday, ensuring the team both a place in Leagues and a happy end to its senior night.

The Devils will later face Franklin, Pleasant Grove and Grant to round out the season.

The game started out with a bang as sophomore Carsen Quick kicked a penalty kick from the corner, passing it to junior Kieran Swenson who scored the first goal of the game. Swenson would later also score the Devils’s second goal.

Senior Alex Hill leaped into the air to keep Sheldon from scoring.

Coming up from the right side of the field, Swenson received a pass to the middle and scored the second goal from the center after skillfully dodging a Sheldon defender.

Davis went into the second half leading 2-0.

Sophomore and goalie Jonah Henrickson leaped into the air and stopped a curved corner goal before crashing to the ground.

Davis had possession of the ball for most of the game until the end when Sheldon got a couple of shots, but luckily both the defense and Henrickson swooped in and prevented the score from becoming a tie.

Coach Alex Park was relieved the team did not tie or lose because they needed to win to make their playoff spot. They have 4 ties going into the season and another one would have jeopardized their spot in playoffs.

Sheldon is currently in second place, and Davis’ win over Sheldon puts Davis ahead for leagues. Depending on how the other teams do, Park believes they are “fighting for top four and winning always, you know, gets the job done.”

At the end of the second half, a Sheldon player dribbled past sophomore Aaron Mayr, who had consistently stolen the ball for the team and turned over possession throughout the game, and took a high shot in the upper left hand corner of the goal, setting final the score 2-1.

Davis ended the game 2-1 with Henrickson diving for the ball and saving multiple goals.

A highlight for Park was Henrickson’s saves.

“Jonah came out with two humongous saves,” Park said.

Mayr believes the team had a strong attack.

“I think we did well, especially on the offensive part. We got two goals early in the game and we closed it out which is something that we rarely do; we always let off, but we didn’t this time,” Mayr said.

Mayr enjoyed celebrating the goals, since “it’s been so long since we’ve gotten two goals in quick succession for the lead.”

Swenson agrees. He scored both goals, and it was the first game Swenson scored this season.

“It was special,” Swenson said. “I think we came out strong. We’re all pumped because it’s senior night and I think we came out fiery when I put those first two goals in and from there it was just a matter of stealing the win.”

Swenson believes they started off well, but faced problems later in the game.

“In the second half we had the wind against us and the boys were tired but I’m proud of us for grinding out the win,” Swenson said.