There were so many storylines leading up to Bingham’s 6A second-round game against Skyridge Thursday May 16 that you could’ve written a book about it. First, some hard feelings might have been had between Bingham and Skyridge according to Bingham head coach Brett Everill. 

“Their head coach was one of my assistants a couple of years ago, then [Bingham] and he had to part ways,” Everill said. “He took a coach and a few players from Bingham.” 

While there technically isn’t anything wrong with doing that, there is an ethical side to that argument that could be had. But wait; there’s more to the story. 

“Several players from Bingham and Skyridge are friends and neighbors,” Everill said. “They grew up playing together and parted ways as their high-school careers started.

It added a lot of extra emotion to this game for players and coaches. Both teams have wanted this matchup for three years now. Our players and theirs wanted to win this game more than any other.” 

At the game’s outset, Skyridge clad in navy blue would threaten the Miners’ goal first and fail to score. On the ensuing counterattack, a nice buildup along the right wing led to Bingham’s first shot on goal that flew wide of the net. About a minute later, a Bingham attacker had an easy tap-in directly in front of the Skyridge goal as the Miners in white celebrated a 1-0 lead.  

Skyridge would immediately go on the offensive, resulting in a shot on goal that was cleared out of bounds thanks to heady defensive play. Bingham would throw in another goal on a counterattack for a 2-0 lead. 

Skyridge answered back to narrow the Miners lead to 2-1. The visitors would threaten Bingham’s goal again, but the Miner defense would hold off several waves of attacks over the next four minutes of the first quarter. 

“We struggled early against Skyridge. We had issues with faceoffs, rides and clearing the ball in the first half,” Everill said, who lamented at how the visitors won the time of possession battle early on.

A ground ball for a Bingham player led to him running untouched for 60 yards and he nearly scored, but threw his attempt left of the goalmouth. Shortly after that, the Miners would be called for a penalty. After Skyridge intercepted a Bingham attempt at a clearance, the visitors would tie the game at 2-2. 

Bingham would score out of the break, but directly out of a timeout Skyridge would answer in this chess match at Ron Case Stadium, making the score 3-3. 

Out of another timeout, Skyridge proved it would be a tough foe on the road, scoring to put Bingham in a deficit for the first time in the game at 3-4 early in the second quarter. 

A cross nearly missed connecting for the Miners to even up the score on the next play, but Bingham would tie it up at 4-4 with a shot that the goalie had trouble with, fumbling the ball into the net. 

A nice sequence of passes on the right wing resulted in another Bingham goal to make it 5-4 when Skyridge called another timeout. 

Immediately after “We’re Not Gonna Take It [Any More]” blared from the stadium loudspeakers, Skyridge scored again as its fan section yelled louder than the PA announcer. 

Digging themselves a 5-6 hole in the second quarter was not the plan and neither was a 5-7 score for the Miners, who seemed to be having some issues controlling the center of the pitch. 

But, the right side of the field seemed to be more playable for Bingham as the Miners battled the wind in the second quarter. That led to more shots that flew over the goal and necessitated a timeout. 

The Miners raced out of the timeout, bobbled the ball for a moment on the left corner of the penalty area and passed it behind the goal to a teammate who flashed open in front of the goal mouth—but the shot went wide, leaving the score at 5-7 as the whistle blew for halftime. 

“We were not where we wanted to be and it was our own fault,” Everill said, who met with his coaches, reviewed the game’s numbers with them and talked to his players. 

“I told them not to panic and just play our game. We will take it just a play at a time,” said the Bingham coach. 

“We wanted to focus on faceoffs and our wings needed to step it up. Clears—I told them to be patient and move towards the ball and let the open passes come to us. Offensively we changed our formation and I told them to slow it down for a bit to give our defense a rest.” 

Half-jokingly, Everill also said he told the team he wanted six goals in the third quarter. 

Four minutes later, the Miners would get one back after a major penalty on Skyridge pushed Bingham’s players up the field in a prime position to score. Skyridge would stave it off for two plays but the first goal of the third quarter came after a Bingham player broke up a pass and forced a ground ball situation. From there the Miners would capitalize, scoring to narrow the Skyridge lead to 6-7 in the third quarter. 

Bingham would almost tie it a minute later when the ball skipped wide of Skyridge’s goal. The fastest player on the pitch almost scored as he was spinning away from his defender, but senior Curtis Carlson got into the act after forcing a turnover in his own end and sprinting 40 yards into Skyridge’s penalty area. 

Carlson’s hard work would be rewarded when a teammate found the senior attacker face-to-face with the Skyridge goalie. This time, Carlson made no mistake as he launched it past the outstretched goalie and into the net to tie the game at 7-7. 

Skyridge scored toward the end of the third quarter to put the Miners back in a one-goal hole. But, Bingham would answer to tie it at 8-8, retake the lead at 9-8 and go ahead 10-8 with 2:34 left in the third quarter. 

As the winds picked up in South Jordan, there was a sense that Bingham had turned this vehicle in the right direction. 

But Skyridge got a goal with 1:09 left in the third that trimmed Bingham’s lead to 10-9. Yet the weirdness of the quarter continued as a Bingham shot bounced off the goalie’s helmet and into the net for another 2-goal lead with the score at 11-9. 

“Sure enough, we outscored Skyridge 6-2 in Q3,” Everill said. “The team responded well.” 

Skyridge would capitalize on a Bingham penalty, however, to make life interesting for everyone who was watching and playing this 6A second-round game. The visitors would get several bites of the apple before scoring, trimming the score to 11-10 with 2:42 left in this end-to-end game. For the first time in the game, though, Bingham felt like it had the game under control. 

“I felt excitement and relief. We made our comeback and took the lead all in one quarter,” Everill said. “Now it was time to slow it down, be disciplined in transitions and just play our game.” 

Bingham slow-played its attack to the point that Skyridge was forced to call a timeout. A Bingham turnover put the ball back in the stick of Skyridge momentarily, but the Miners put an exclamation point on this victory with a goal. 

As 1:08 showed on the scoreboard clock, Bingham was ahead, 12-10. Skyridge tried frantically to paw at the ball inside the webbing of a Bingham player’s stick, but it was too late. 

In Everill’s eyes, the Miners earned this hard-fought victory. 

“We dominated faceoffs in the second half and won 10 out of 12,” he said. “Our clears and rides improved dramatically and that is what helped increase our time of possession and keep Skyridge’s offense off the field. 

We started the [4th] quarter off with a 4-minute possession. It was a big defensive battle for both teams, the goalies played great. We had amazing performances from our seniors: Tucker Hale with 4 goals, Curtis Carlson with 1 goal and 3 assists, Ryken Whitney with 1 goal and 3 assists, Brenton Wilcox with 3 goals, and Karter Hone with 1 goal and 1 assist. Our goalie Dylan Wahlberg had a great game and made huge clutch saves right at the end of the game to help maintain our lead.” 

In the 6A quarterfinals at Corner Canyon two days later on Saturday May 18, these Miners would meet their Kryptonite in a 3-17 loss. But for one day, Everill’s team were super men. 

“Our boys worked so hard this season and I couldn’t be more proud of them. We had such an awesome group of seniors and I am going to miss them. They are truly special young men and they did a great job leading this team. 

We had a couple games not go our way but overall this season has been an amazing one. I am grateful for the opportunity to be coaching the Bingham team.”  λ