SALT LAKE CITY — For the second year in a row, the Judge Memorial Catholic High School Bulldogs pulled off an upset in the 3A UHSAA Boys Soccer Championship game at Rio Tinto Stadium – this time against the Summit Academy Bears.
Like last year when the Bulldogs won in second overtime, this year’s championship game on May 10 was hard-fought. It ended in a 3-2 victory for Judge – something that seemed in jeopardy early in the game.
Right out of the gate, Judge fell behind 2-0 to Summit Academy, who scored five minutes into the game and followed that up 15 minutes later with a second goal.
Coming back from that was “really a challenge,” said center forward Gebeon Baende, a junior. “Since we were down 2-0, the team had a hard time focusing. We were focusing on being down, but once I started helping my other forwards make other runs, things started to open up and our confidence returned.”
The Bulldogs finally found their mojo later in the half. After several attempts by the Bulldogs, just before half-time freshman Juan Batalla scored a goal with an assist from senior Joe Paul. Jack Terrill, a junior, followed up two minutes later with another goal, his 29th of the season.
Prior to scoring there was a free kick from outside of the field and one of the Judge players was on the ground, so the other team was not really paying attention, Jack Terrill said. In contrast, the Bulldogs was ready to go, “so JP (Joe Paul) crossed it into the box and I headed it in. They were caught off-guard,” he said. “To score that second goal before half-time — everyone was going crazy. It was such a relief.”
Then, shortly after half time, sophomore Antony Galindo scored what would turn out to be the winning goal, with another assist from Paul. From there, it was a matter of holding Summit Academy back.
“After the three goals, we dropped Jack from attacking midfield to more defending the mid-field position; we were going to hold on,” coach Kelly Terrill said. “It was a better way to go than trying to score again.”
As part of that strategy, Terrill said he heavily utilized Baende against Summit Academy’s center back “where we would target him.”
The Bulldogs managed to keep the Bears at bay until the final whistle, clinching the state title.
Winning was “a complete joy,” Jack Terrill said. “Everyone on the team worked hard. To be able to do that with all my friends I go to school with, it was amazing.”
“In that game, Gedeon Baende was a workhorse; so was Jack Terrill, and Joe Paul played a heck of a game,” Kelly Terrill said later.
Earning the state title notwithstanding, the team had a challenging season, Kelly Terrill said.
“Last year, none of teams knew who we were; no one really paid that much attention to us,” the coach said. “But people knew we were coming this year. They were ready; they game planned for us.”
Still, “even though they lost a couple of games in the middle of the season, the kids never quit, never gave up,” he said.
Despite early struggles with injuries, the tough competition and mid-season losses to Summit Academy and Morgan, Judge ended strong in the final game.
“I kind of look at it as they played harder and harder and harder and harder,” Kelly Terrill said. “When the final whistle blew in that game it was ‘Whew, it paid off!’ That was the whole season – that’s how they approached every game.”
From a player perspective, the season was “an up and down battle,” Jack Terrill said. “We started stronger than we did last year and took back some wins we had lost in the preseason, but then we started getting cocky. After we lost a couple of games, we changed our mindset and brought the team back to life to go on and have eight wins in a row.”
That winning streak finished with the final game against Summit Academy, the second consecutive state win for Judge. Last year, the Bulldogs defeated Morgan 1-0 in that second overtime, ending a seven-year dry spell.
Although Terrill will lose seven seniors, including his goalies, to graduation, he feels good about next year’s season, he said.
“My entire defense is sophomores and freshmen, so I’m not too worried,” he said. “I also have a good group of seniors coming back next year – they should lead the team. We will have lots of significant players next year; I feel we can compete.”
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