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Spanish Fork's Kylie Harris scores a goal during semifinal action on Tuesday

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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Springville's Savannah Johnston dribbles past a defender during Tuesday's semifinal game versus Bountiful

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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Springville's Adalie Dodd scored one of her team's two goals during Tuesday's semifinal loss to Bountiful

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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Springville's Halle Hall during semifinal action versus Bountiful

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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Springville's Samantha Hullinger was a standout during her team's 3-2 loss to Bountiful in the state semifinal round

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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Halle Hall was one of the senior leaders for the Red Devils this season

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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Springville's Savannah Johnston provided constant pressure during her team's 3-2 loss to Bountiful

Brandon Gurney, Provo Daily Herald

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The Dons celebrate after scoring a goal during Tuesday's semifinal match vs Olympus

Brandon Gurney, Daily Herald

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Although the Springville girls soccer team didn’t walk away from Zions Bank Stadium with a win, the fact that it had the opportunity to finish out its season there was something to be proud of.

That was the message from Springville coach Todd Hollingshead to his understandably emotional players after Tuesday’s heartbreaking 3-2 loss to Bountiful in the 5A state semifinal round. Much as they have all season, the Red Devils fought fiercely throughout in a match that was back-and-forth throughout the entire 80 minutes played.

“Those were two really good teams that deserved to be playing at this level,” Hollingshead said. “It could have gone either way, but at the end Bountiful walked away the winner and we have a lot of respect for them, and wish them the best.”

The Redhawks took it to the Red Devils early, scoring a goal with just over four minutes played to set out to a 1-0 lead. Just over two minutes later saw Springville respond, however, when Sage Conrad split the defense to land a shot effectively in the back of the net to square things at 1-1.

Springville then took a 2-1 lead in the 24th minute courtesy of a brilliant shot from just outside the box off the foot of senior midfielder Adalie Dodd. Bountiful responded with its own goal with just over eight minutes remaining the first half, however, to square things up at the break.

The match proved at least competitive in the second half, with both teams battling back and forth to provide good scoring opportunities. But only one of those paid dividends on the scoreboard, however, with the Redhawks scoring what proved to be the game-winning goal with just over 25 minutes remaining.

But true to form, Springville kept battling, and were able to provide furious pressure on Bountiful’s goal for the final five minutes, but just came up short.

“That’s soccer, and it’s unfortunate because we really did work to get some good chances there at the end,” Hollingshead said. “But this team never quits, and that’s what you saw out there. They work as hard as anyone and certainly put it all out there today.”

Leading the charge for the Red Devils, much like they have all season, were senior captains Conrad, Halle Hall and Caroline Penrod, all of whom worked ardently to set the tone for a Springville team that advanced to the semifinal round for the first time since 2009.

“It’s hard because we have a lot of great seniors, but they need to be proud of the way that they worked,” Hollingshead said. “They gave it their all and sometimes you walk off the field not being the winner, and that’s okay. They should be proud of the way they played.”

Springville had a lot of goals set prior to the start of the year, and accomplished just about all of them, according to Hollingshead, including paving a path to play at Zions Bank Stadium in the state semifinal round.

“Our girls played as hard as they could and gave everything they could out there today,” he concluded. “We came up a bit short at the end, but I’m so proud of the girls for making it this far because they deserved to play on this field.”

Dons go down fighting

Tuesday’s other 5A semifinal match featured Spanish Fork and No. 1-seeded Olympus, with the Dons taking a tough 2-1 loss. Spanish Fork’s lone goal came late in the second half when Kylie Harris managed to get her foot on a ball that was deflected right in front of the Titan’s goal and into the back of the net.

That proved to be it, however, for Spanish Fork, as Olympus controlled most of the possession and made things tough for Spanish Fork’s otherwise resilient team.

“For us, going into it, our biggest issue was going to be fitness,” said Spanish Fork Coach Harry Roberts-Hunt. “We were coming off of two straight overtime wins, and three of our starters were questionable to play before the match, and we didn’t really even know if they’d be able to play. So for the girls to make the game as close as they did against a team that most consider to be the best in the state says a lot about the fight this team has.”

As for the accomplishment of making it to the state semifinal round, Roberts-Hunt and his team took great pride in the accomplishment while hoping it’s the first of several such trips.

“We would have liked to have gone one step further, but I think we showed what we can accomplish with what really was a young team here at Spanish Fork,” Roberts-Hunt said. “We’re only going to get better and better, and there’s a lot of girls out there who could have played for Spanish Fork who have chosen to play elsewhere. Hopefully we can get more and more of those same girls to stay home knowing now about what we were able to accomplish this season.”