By Josh McFadden | [email protected]

Girls soccer is the first fall sport to get underway, with workouts starting in July and the season kicking off in early August. 

Still, the Bingham Miners wished they could have gone a week or two longer.

The Miners’ season ended Oct. 6 with a 4-0 loss to Westlake in a state tournament play-in game. The defeat kept Bingham out of the state tournament. This is a rare occurrence for the program, which hadn’t missed the playoffs this century. 

Bingham and Westlake tied for fourth place in the five-team league, each sporting a 2-9-1 region mark. The teams got together for the rare play-in game for the right to move on to the postseason. In three regular season meetings, Bingham beat Westlake once (2-0 on Sept. 13), lost once (2-1 on Oct. 2) and tied once (0-0 on Aug. 28). 

The shutout loss in the play-in game was just the fourth time in 17 games that the Miners failed to find the back of the net. Still, the Miners struggled getting goals this season, as they faced some stellar defenses in Region 4. Bingham couldn’t manage to eclipse two goals in a game during region play and only generated two goals three times in 12 region matches. 

Aside from its win over Westlake, Bingham also toppled third-place Pleasant Grove at home on Sept. 20 by the score of 2-1. Kallie James scored both of Bingham’s goals on the day. The junior wound up leading the Miners in scoring with six goals on the year. 

In fact, the Miners’ top two scorers will be back next season. Sophomore Jessica Thomas netted two goals. A trio of other Miners—Ashlee Kammeyer, Shelby Keating and Kasandra Leonce—each contributed a pair of goals. Kammeyer and Keating are both seniors, but Leonce is just a sophomore. 

Goalie Hope Ramirez will also be back next season. The junior had four shutouts in the net this year and anchored a Bingham defense that surrendered a respectable two goals a game. 

The Miners were on the wrong end of some tough games, but they were also close in multiple other contests. Five of their nine region defeats were by two goals or fewer, with three coming by a single goal. 

Bingham has a long offseason to work on getting back on track. The team will assemble for summer conditioning leading up to the 2019 campaign.