High school soccer: Wolverines blow off steam on Miners

WEST VALLEY CITY -- The Hunter Wolverines had built up a lot of pent-up frustration.

Region 3 champions a season ago, they've endured many bad bounces and breaks since day one of the 2008 boys soccer season. Of Hunter's seven losses, five had been by just one goal and the other two had been by two goals.

It didn't take them long to blow away that frustration.

After surrendering an equalizer to Bingham in the 45th minute of the Region 3 finale, Franchelli Albornoz and Luis Maldonado accounted for four goals within the space of nine minutes to lead Hunter to a 5-1 win over the Miners on Wednesday.

"I was sick of losing by one goal or something, so I think the five goals we got, that makes us confident going into the playoffs," Albornoz said.

Hunter finishes Region 3 in a second-place tie with Copper Hills, though the Grizzlies will represent the league as its No. 2 seed by virtue of their upset win over fifth-ranked Riverton. Hunter will be the No. 3 seed, while Bingham drops from potentially being second to finishing in fourth.

Hunter coach Troy Thomas has been working with his players to better respond to adversity than they had been during all of those close losses, and it paid off big time on Wednesday.

"That's what we've been looking for all season is that kind of response," said Thomas. "We've lost a lot of close games, and we've worked a lot on that in practice -- getting our heads up after those goals. I think they proved today that they're learning."

You're not kidding.

After Bingham central midfielder Kyle Wing scored to cancel out Henry Lopez's early Hunter goal, you could hardly blame Wolverine fans for thinking, "Oh, no. Here we go again."

But that's not what happened.

Just two minutes after the equalizer, Maldonado pounced at the left post to restore Hunter's lead. Albornoz scored a fantastic solo goal two minutes after that, and the Wolverines were off to the races.

"Oh, that was exciting," Albornoz said of the nine-minute salvo. "It was just goal after goal -- non-stop, practically."

E-mail: drasmussen@desnews.com

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