And that prospect exactly what the Maple Mountain girls soccer team is presenting this season.

In doing as much, the Golden Eagles have struggled a bit out of the gate, evidenced by a 2-4 start to the season which perhaps belies the team’s overall play and certainly its potential as one of the top programs in the state.

“We’ve played well this season, but the ball hasn’t been bouncing our direction,” said Maple Mountain Coach Clif Swain. “So getting this one tonight was a really good thing for us.”

The game Swain referred to was Thursday’s 3-1 win over Salem Hills which saw the Golden Eagles control most of the possession throughout, but this time capitalize on those possessions, which isn’t always a given in soccer.

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

“We’ve had set plays go against us, some weird bouncy balls and that’s just the game of soccer,” Swain said. “Soccer is just one of those games where you can dominate and still lose. But for us it’s about keeping our system, maintaining our focus on dominating possession, and if we do those things, we know the results will come like they did tonight. We want to do everything we can to keep the ball.”

Leading off the scoring for Maple Mountain was Piper Hoyt, booting through a goal toward the end of the first half to give her team a 1-0 lead at the break.

The Skyhawks answered, however, with Kylie Mead sending one through midway through the second half to square things at 1-1.

But Maple Mountain responded with one of its notable freshmen, Hinckley Hassan providing a strong kick that found that back of the net for the go-ahead score. Swain believes that the results Hassan provided, along with the rest of his young freshmen will continue to see improvement as they catch up to the team’s seniors.

“It just takes reps and game time,” Swain said. “That’s why it’s taken us a few games to come around, but we’re sticking with it, knowing that our young freshmen are playing with and against girls that are three years older. That takes time to adjust to that game speed, but you saw Hinckley come through tonight. She’s a phenomenal player and so are a lot of our other freshmen players.”

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

Those freshmen are taking note from a strong group of senior leaders, particularly midfielder Arie Bunce and goalkeeper Anya Gulley.

“Arie is a four-year varsity player for us and Anya is the brick wall for us back there. She’s super athletic and makes some amazing saves,” Swain said. “We’re fortunate to have both of them and a number of other really great leaders.”

For Bunce, she’s embraced her leadership role and was certainly in good spirits following Thursday’s win.

“Hopefully this begins a winning streak for us,” she said. “We’ve been working hard on taking more shots and placing those shots effectively, and that was the difference for us tonight. But it all starts with us possessing the ball and it’s now just coming through on those possessions, which we did well tonight.”

As far as playing with a group of freshmen three years younger than herself, Bunce is more than willing to do what it takes.

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

“Our freshmen are really good this year and I’ve been impressed with them,” she said. “It’s fun and I’m enjoying getting them up to speed to help us this year and then, when we leave, they’ll know what it takes and then teach those girls younger than them. That’s what it’s all about. We all want to work for each other.”

Indeed Maple Mountain has done it as well as anyone in recent years, winning a state championship as recently as two seasons ago on top of last year’s run to the state semifinal round.

“We’ve had some good success in recent years,” Swain said. “By the end the season the goal is to be clicking on all cylinders and tonight’s win was a good step in accomplishing that. We just need to stick to our system, believe in each other and keep improving. If we continue to do those things then we feel we’ll have a pretty good team by the end of the year.”

Maple Mountain Coach Clif Swain during halftime

Maple Mountain's Ellie Dunkley dribbles through traffic during her team's 3-1 win over Salem Hills

Maple Mountain's Madison Neilson

Maple Mountain's Saige Collins

Maple Mountain celebrates following a goal scored

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