5A Boys Soccer: Hillcrest golden goal ruins PG’s perfect season
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- Pleasant Grove’s Harper Taylor (right) consoles teammate Connor Merryweather after a 3-2 double overtime loss to Hillcrest in the 5A boys soccer quarterfinals on Friday, May 15, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove boys soccer coach Chris Ecalono consoles his players after a 3-2 double overtime loss to Hillcrest in the 5A quarterfinals on Friday, May 15, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Trey Okey reacts after his penalty kick hits the crossbar in a 5A boys soccer quarterfinal against Hillcrest on Friday, May 15, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Mauricio Rondan (33) sees his shot go wide of the goal against Hillcrest in a 5A boys soccer quarterfinal on Friday, May 15, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove players react to a 3-2 double overtime loss to Hillcrest in the 5A boys soccer quarterfinals on Friday, May 15, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove’s TJ Ashby (4) and his teammates react after a goal in a 5A boys soccer quarterfinal against Hillcrest on Friday, May 15, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Mauricio Rondan dribbles the ball against Hillcrest in a 5A boys soccer quarterfinal against Hillcrest on Friday, May 15, 2026.
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- Hillcrest goalkeeper Jesus Khalil tips a Pleasant Grove shot away in a 5A boys soccer quarterfinal on Friday, May 15, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove boys soccer coach Chris Ecalono (in black) has a conversation with officials during a 5A quarterfinal with Hillcrest on Friday, May 15, 2026.
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- Pleasant Grove’s Trey Okey dribbles the ball against Hillcrest in a 5A boys soccer quarterfinal on Friday, May 15, 2026.
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- The Pleasant Grove mascot is driven around the soccer field before the start of a 5A boys quarterfinal against Hillcrest on Friday, May 15, 2026.
Pleasant Grove’s unbeaten season is no more, and it ended in the cruelest of ways.
The Vikings lost Friday’s 5A boys soccer quarterfinal when Hillcrest sophomore Jeter Pugh took a free kick from about 20 yards away in the second overtime and put it in the upper 90 of the net — a perfectly placed shot that no goalkeeper in the world couldn’t have reached — earning Hillcrest a stunning 3-2 victory.
Pleasant Grove, which came into the match the No. 2 seed in the 5A tournament and undefeated at 18-0, could only lament its missed opportunities. The Vikings led 1-0 and 2-1, only to see the Huskies fight back to tie each time. PG’s Trey Okey also missed a penalty kick with just over two minutes to play in regulation that likely would have won the game.
“We had our chances, and Hillcrest came through with some incredible, incredible shots,” Vikings head coach Chris Ecanolo said. ” I can say that, especially in that second half and overtime, we left it all out on the field. We were playing to win and I was really proud of them. Ultimately, sometimes it doesn’t go your way, and you need a little bit of fortune in playoff soccer. I’ve been doing this for a while, and it just didn’t go our way tonight.”
Pleasant Grove took the first lead when junior TJ Ashby fired a free kick into the box in the 25th minutes and senior Sam Clark headed the ball in for a 1-0 lead. Hillcrest knotted the score at 1-1 in the 36th minute, scoring on a deflection.
The two teams battled to a stalemate for most of the second half but in the final three minutes of regulation, things went a little bit crazy.
With 2:45 to play, the Vikings converted a set piece when Okey’s corner kick found the head of Maximo Olmos and his shot went just inside the far post for a 2-1 PG lead. Before the celebration had died down the Huskies countered, drilling a long shot into the net on the other end just 22 seconds later to tie the match at 2-2.
Just 11 seconds later, Okey was fouled by the Hillcrest goalkeeper Jesus Khalil on a run into the box and was awarded a penalty kick. But his shot sailed high and off the crossbar, sending the two teams to overtime.
Pleasant Grove put plenty of pressure on the visitors in the first overtime but Khalil parried away three hard shots to keep the score tied.
Early in the second overtime period, the Vikings committed a foul and Pugh scored his second goal of the match to play the hero for the No. 7 seeded Huskies, who move on to Monday’s semifinals against Maple Mountain.
I’m proud of the boys, that’s all I can say,” Ecalono said. “We believe that we had a number of opportunities. We believe that we were the better team. We believe that we played, especially in the second half, the way we want the boys to play. We made a number of plays and it’s playoff do-or-die soccer, you know? Somebody’s got to make a play in the end, and kudos to Hillcrest that came through with that free kick.
“But I’m proud of the season that we had. I’m proud of the family that we have here. The whole community came out of the family of alumni coaches that are still with the boys right now, the parents, just everybody in the community. It means a lot. That’s what families do, they stay with each other through the ups and downs. It sucked that it ended like this. This was not the plan, you know. We thought we played well enough to win in the second half, and we just couldn’t make that last play.”
