MHS Sports Shorts

Girls Tennis

With three matches in one week, the MHS girls tennis team was certainly busy! They opened Region play Aug. 29 against Grantsville at home with a 3-2 victory. Wednesday they traveled to Heber City to make up their rain-delayed match against Wasatch and fell 5-0 to the Wasps. The next day, they returned home and claimed a 5-0 victory over St. Joseph.  

Coach Katherine Hadley commented, “I am very proud of our team. We had some really close matches against a very strong 5A Wasatch team.”

  “In her match, Savannah Dutson fought extremely hard and never gave up. In the first set, she was down 0-5 and fought back to win four straight games. She lost the match 6-4, 6-4, but showed a lot of tenacity and just played a great match.”

“We have four more region matches before the region tournament. We’re looking forward to the tournament and should compete very well.”

Against Grantsville, Morgan won 1st and 2nd Doubles and 3rd Singles to win the match 3-2. Willa Anderton and Kaitlyn Carter got the “W” 6-0, 6-4 at 1st Doubles while Isabella Dickman and Carys Morgan won 6-4, 6-4. Macey Dee took 3rd Singles 6-0, 7-5. In the 1st Singles’ match, Savannah Dutson fell 6-3, 7-6 (9-7) and Sophie Rabe, 2nd Singles, was defeated 6-4, 6-2.  

The Trojans handily won all of their matches against St. Joseph. They won with all of the sets going to Morgan 6-0 except one that went 6-1. In the Wasatch match, there were some close sets, but the Wasp swept all five matches.  Dickman and Morgan went three sets at 2nd Doubles.

Morgan played at home twice this week in region matches. South Summit visited Tuesday, and the Trojans hosted Ben Lomond Thursday. Morgan’s final Region match, Senior Night and final home match will be Tuesday, Sept. 12 against Ogden.

Girls Soccer 

After their first two Region 13 games, Morgan is 1-1 with a 4-3 record on the season. Tuesday, the Trojans took on the defending state finalists’ Ogden, at home, and the game plan didn’t go as intended with Morgan falling 5-1 to the Tigers. In their second Region 13 game two days later, Morgan topped Union 8-0. 

Assistant Coach Jesse Henderson reported, “Ogden has a good team, and we need to play close to perfect against them, not give the ball away and chase the whole game.”

“The first half was good, 2-1 Ogden at the break. Then we kept giving the ball away, and the girls got worn out chasing constantly. The good thing is that it is only the first game, and there are things that are fixable to get us to where we can compete for the full game against them.”

“We can make adjustments and give them a game next time. There is also a good chance we’ll see them in the playoffs at some point. Everything is very fixable, so I’m confident we will give them a game next time,” Henderson reiterated.

Ogden scored two goals in the first half to Morgan’s one to hold a 2-1 lead at the half. After the break, the Tigers found the net three more times to defeat the Trojans 5-1.

Morgan’s lone goal was scored by Ashlyn Noss on an assist from Kaydence Wardell.

In the Union match, the Trojans played aggressively offensively and won 7-0. Kapree Charlton scored a hat trick, and Lacie Poll added a brace. Emma Toone and Amy Thomas both tallied a goal. Thomas and Wardell each recorded an assist. Caroline Owen and Madi Wangsgard shared the shutout as the goalkeepers for the match.

Sept. 12 is the next home game for the Trojans. They will take on Grantsville.

Boys and Girls Cross Country

Morgan ran at the Timpanogos Invitational Friday, Sept. 1 against the top teams in the state. Junior EJ Lee was the Trojans’ top finisher at the meet. Lee placed fourth in the Junior/Senior 5K with a 16:49.2 race. Completing the race second for Morgan was Tucker Giles (18:07.7).  Juniors Maverick Guymon (18:16.9) and Esplan McClellan (18:48.5) both finished under 19 minutes.

Top senior/junior girls were junior Brooklyn Hill (24:40.2), senior Makenna Terry (25:11.9), senior Kiara Hayward (25:29.5) and senior Lindsay Birt (25:58.8).

In the boys sophomore/freshman race, sophomore Jonas Archibald led the team with a time of 18:34.6 followed by sophomore Henry Rose (19:02.6). Freshmen Drake Mecham (19:19.6) and Caleb Lewis (21:33.8) rounded out the top four finishers for Morgan.

Freshmen Miyah West (26:43.1) and Chloe Nielsen (28:35.5) were the top two girls for Morgan in the FROSH girls race. Reese Richardson, a sophomore, was third (29:08.1) with Blakely Watrin (34:47.0) running fourth for the Trojans.

In addition to the Timpanogos Meet, Morgan ran at Ben Lomond Wednesday, August 30 in a Region Meet. Morgan traveled to Grantsville Wednesday, Sept. 6 for a Region 13 meet and will race Friday at the Park City Invitational.

Football

The MHS football team continues to play challenging preseason competition to prepare them for Region 13 play. In this week’s game against 4A Green Canyon from North Logan, the Trojans came up just short with a 15-14 loss to the Wolves.

Morgan scored early on two long passes from Beck Sheffield to take a 14-6 lead into the locker room. Neither team scored in the third period, and the Wolves hit a late touchdown followed by a field goal with 3:15 remaining to earn the one-point victory.

Coach Jared Barlow shared, “Green Canyon has a solid defense. We had some untimely mistakes that ended drives for us offensively. We need to do a better job of being consistent with what we do and not make those critical errors.”

“Defensively we played much better this week. It was good to see the defense play as well as they did. We still need to make plays to get teams off the field in 3rd and 4th down situations.”

With three minutes remaining in the first quarter, Sheffield hit Brogan Garrett on a 40-yard pass to light up the score board first. Beau Johnson added the PAT. With five minutes left in the second period, Sheffield again found an open receiver and connected. Tate Nelson hauled in Sheffield’s 55-yard pass for the Trojan’s second score, and Johnson added the PAT.

With 10 seconds remaining in the first half, Green Canyon scored their first touchdown on an 8-yard pass but missed the PAT, giving the Trojans a 14-6 lead at the break.

After a scoreless third period, the Wolves scored another touchdown six seconds into the fourth period on a two yard run. Trailing 12-14, Green Canyon attempted the two-point conversion but were stopped by the Trojan defense. With 3:14 remaining in the game, Green Canyon’s Caleb Butterfield hit a 35-yard field goal to give the Wolves the 15-14 victory.

Nelson led Morgan’s receivers with 100 yards on six catches and led the Trojan defense with 14 tackles, two sacks and an interception. Garrett added 75 receiving yards on four catches. Sheffield completed 30/44 passes for 222 yards for two touchdowns.

Jett Salmon and Lincoln Gilson each recorded six tackles for the Trojan defense.

“As a team we continue to improve and prepare for Region. We have played a solid preseason ending with Kearns this week. Going through the schedule we have, we have seen things we need to improve to prepare for a deep run in the playoffs,’’ he explained.

“All our goals are still in front of us, we just need to maintain focus, tune out the outside noise, and continue to grow together as a team. It is difficult to lose, but we will use the losses to become better and prepare us for success,” Barlow concluded.

Morgan travels to 5A Kearns next week before beginning region play at home against Juan Diego on Sept. 15.

Girls Volleyball

Morgan faced off against two 4A teams from Cache Valley last week. Tuesday they hosted Green Canyon and fell 1-3 to the Wolves. Thursday they traveled to Ridgeline High School and earned a 3-0 victory. 

They played Davis on Sept. 6 and opened Region 13 play against Union Sept. 7.  Next week they travel to Ben Lomond on Tuesday and will host Grantsville Thursday in two more region games.

Boys Golf

Morgan hosted the Region 13 meet Tuesday, Sept. 5 at Round Valley. Results weren’t available at press time. The Trojans will travel to Soldier Hollow Golf Course for their next region match Sept. 18.  λ