An early peek at 3A and 2A boys soccer playoff brackets

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s almost time to rumble. For Class 3A and 2A, it seems as though the season has flown by, and now it’s win-or-go-home time for the state’s two smallest classifications.
Class 3A and 2A will hold first-round playoff contests at home sites on Wednesday, followed by the quarterfinals on Saturday. Both classifications will then conclude their seasons with the semifinal and final rounds inside Timpview High’s picturesque stadium the following weekend.
I will have more exhaustive tournament previews for 3A and 2A in Tuesday’s paper, but for now, here’s an early look at both brackets along with some comments about each:

Class 3A first-round games
Ogden (8-6) at Judge (9-6-1)
Bear River (2-9-1) at Delta (8-6-1)
Carbon (6-9) at Cedar (7-7)
Wasatch (9-5-2) at Morgan (7-5)
North Sanpete (6-8-1) at Hurricane (5-10-1)
Uintah (6-7-2) at Logan (15-1)
Ben Lomond (6-7-1) at Park City (10-3-1)
Waterford (3-7-4) at Juan Diego (4-10-1)

Comments: I remember writing my playoff preview story last year for 3A and making the point that many felt the classification’s tournament would be ‘wide open.’ Indeed it was. Class 3A featured a number of outstanding sides in that tournament field ‘ Pine View, Logan, Park City, Juan Diego, Delta, Bear River and others ‘ and the playoffs really were wide open as those squads squared off.
This time around, the field ‘ with one gigantic exception ‘ is again wide-open, but it’s a drastically different kind of wide-open. Aside from top-ranked Logan, which has clearly been the big favorite in 3A all year, there aren’t any can’t-miss names in this field. Take a quick peak at the brackets, and it’s abundantly clear the tournament could go in any number of different directions.
On paper, it doesn’t take Columbo to figure out that the two biggest matchups of the first round will be Ogden at Judge and Wasatch at Morgan. Wasatch, Judge and Ogden have been near the top of the 3A rankings all season, and Morgan, which made an appearance there a couple weeks ago and will probably be in the final rankings on Sunday, won three games in four days this week to secure Region 11′s No. 2 seed and a first-round home game.
According to my colleague Justin Johnson of the Ogden Standard-Examiner, Ogden hit the crossbar an astonishing seven times in a 1-0 loss to Ben Lomond Friday, which dropped them out of a second-place tie with Morgan. However, the Tigers have enjoyed a very good year and should be regarded as a main contender, as should their first-round opponent, Judge. First-year coach Kelly Terrill guided his young Bulldogs to a region championship in boys soccer for the first time in years (they lost a tie-breaker with Park City to fall to the second seed), and they’ll look to translate that regular-season success into a finished product in the postseason.
On the other hand, Wasatch at Morgan features a pair of teams that have traditionally enjoyed lots of soccer success and will feel they possess the characteristics to be major players in the tournament.
Aside from the two marquee matchups, there are a number of other intriguing games: Bear River at Delta features two of last year’s semifinalists, albeit Bear River is a vastly different team in 2008; North Sanpete at Hurricane features two teams that have had OK seasons and will look to make it to the quarterfinals; Ben Lomond at Park City features two teams that should be well-suited to play on Park City’s turf; Waterford at Juan Diego features two teams that have enjoyed an excellent soccer rivalry with one another over the years.

Class 2A first-round games
Reg. 17 No. 3 at ALA (6-4-2)
Reg. 17 No. 5 at Richfield (11-2-1)
Beaver (6-9-1) at Rowland Hall (9-4-1)
Millard (8-6-1) at Reg. 17 No. 2
Was. Academy (6-5) at Grand (12-3-1)
South Summit (2-13) at Reg. 17 No. 1
Gunnison (6-9) at St. Joseph (8-4-1)
Reg. 17 No. 4 at Manti (10-5)

Comments: First, a disclaimer: Region 17 holds its final round of games on Monday, and all five of the league’s playoff seeds could change depending on those games, so we don’t yet have complete 2A brackets.
Looking at how the 2A tournament is shaping up, however, there are several first-round contests that will be intriguing and should tell us all we need to know about Region 13 and Region 17.
Region 14, anchored by heavyweights St. Joseph, Rowland Hall and budding power ALA, is a known commodity. St. Joseph and Rowland Hall have been competing successfully in sanctioned boys soccer for some time, and they were clearly head-and-shoulders above than everybody not named ‘Waterford’ in the first year of 2A last season. ALA, meanwhile, impressively netted wins over St. Joseph and Rowland Hall during the regular season this year and seems to have a number of talented players in its side. Add to that the fact that Wasatch Academy took ALA to overtime on Friday and features an outstanding goal-scorer in Kyle Farmer, and it’s obvious that Region 14 is tops in 2A.
Region 13 and Region 17, on the other hand, are total unknowns at this point. Many of the Region 13 teams are in their first seasons of sanctioned soccer, and only a few of the schools in either league held preseason games. Having said that, though, I wouldn’t be as dismissive of those teams as some have been.
Grand, like Rowland Hall and St. Joseph, has lots of previous experience with sanctioned soccer and has scored lots and lots of goals this season. I had the chance to catch Manti and Richfield square off against one another last Thursday, and I came away thinking that, if either of those teams played really well, they could give some of the Northern Utah teams a run for their money.
Looking at specific first-round matchups, Wasatch Academy at Grand is an obvious highlight. The result of this contest should give us a very good idea about where Region 13 stands in relation to Region 14.
I’m also very interested to see how the top two seeds from Region 17 fare in their first-round contests. Region 17 No. 1 hosts South Summit of Region 14, while Region 17 No. 2 hosts Millard of Region 13.