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Salem Hills sophomore Brooks Barker (23) celebrates after scoring a goal during the Region 7 game against Timpview in Provo on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Timpview and Salem Hills players attempt to head the ball during the Region 7 game in Provo on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Salem Hills junior Jaden Thomas heads the ball during the Region 7 game against Timpview in Provo on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Timpview senior Jude Boxx kicks the ball during the Region 7 game against Salem Hills in Provo on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Salem Hills junior Will Hansen (right) celebrates after scoring a goal during the Region 7 game against Timpview in Provo on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Salem Hills senior Matt Parrish collects the ball during the Region 7 game against Timpview in Provo on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Salem Hills junior Will Hansen (12) battles a Timpview player for the ball during the Region 7 game in Provo on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Timpview senior Jude Boxx (right) kicks the ball during the Region 7 game against Salem Hills in Provo on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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There was good news and bad news for the Salem Hills and Timpview boys soccer teams after Tuesday’s Region 7 game in Provo.

For the Skyhawks, the bad news was that they didn’t play nearly as well against the Thunderbirds as they did in their impressive 5-1 showing at home earlier in the season.

The good news, on the other hand, was that Salem Hills still did just enough to get another win — but it certainly wasn’t easy.

The Skyhawks went in front but Timpview got a late penalty-kick goal to put the pressure on down the stretch.

In the end, though, Salem Hills managed to stave off every Thunderbird attack in the final minutes to get the 2-1 victory.

“Timpview is a tough team at home,” Skyhawk head coach Jerry Johnson said. “They’ve played everyone pretty tight here and so hats off to those guys for coming in making us earn the win here.

“I felt like overall we played the way we wanted to but we didn’t finish a few chances. If you let teams hang around, things happen. It’s a great win for our team to learn from though. We haven’t had a lot of tight games where we’ve had to kind of manage them at the end so I was really proud of the boys. They were gritty at the end and got the job done.”

Salem Hills seemed to be in complete control in the first half.

The visitors started the scoring in the eighth minute when Skyhawk sophomore Brooks Barker won the race to a bouncing ball and chipped it over the charging Timpview keeper.

Eighteen minutes later Salem Hills would increase the lead when senior Ethan Smith put a free kick into the Thunderbird box. Junior Will Hansen got to the ball near the far post and put it in to make the score 2-0.

“When you have those types of chances against a good team, you have to finish them,” Johnson said.

The Skyhawks actually had opportunities to increase the lead but had one shot ricochet of the crossbar and another bounce off the post.

Although they were down, Timpview refused to quit.

In the 71st minute, the Thunderbirds got fouled in the box and senior Jude Boxx drilled the penalty kick just inside the left post to cut the deficit in half.

Suddenly it was a completely different game as Timpview rode the momentum to a few final chances to equalize, including having a potential game-tying shot hit the woodwork but stay out.

“This is a good learning opportunity for us,” Johnson said. “We’ve got to learn how to continue to play the way they’ve played the entire match instead of worrying about where we are situationally. There was no reason to panic. We had been possessing and building, but we’re a young team. Experience is a great teacher and we’ll from that to be more calm at the end.”

Johnson said that there was almost a feeling on the Salem Hills sideline that the Skyhawks had lost after the game because of the ending and what this team knows it is capable of.

“The truth is they have high expectations for themselves and I love that about them,” Johnson said. “They’re a great bunch but it’s good for us to pull one off that was close.”

It’s been a great season so far for Salem Hills and the Skyhawks want to keep it that way over the final few games of the season.

“Every year you come in and you sort of wonder how the chemistry is going to work out, what the boys are going to do,” Johnson said. “We have a lot of skill on this team and we spend a lot of time working on touch and playing the way we want to play. I want a team that loves the ball and can be creative and have fun.

“The boys coming into the season were like, hey, let’s win games by scoring goals and creating chances. They love that. They love it in practice and they love it on the pitch. We’ve had games that have just been magic.”

He knows that the last few games will matter in the battle to get a good seed for the upcoming 5A state tournament, so he wants to see his squad finish strong.

Salem Hills (10-1) stays on the road to play at Spanish Fork on Thursday, while Timpview (6-6) heads to Cedar Valley for its next game on April 30.

Both games are scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

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