Does high school soccer need a mercy rule?

Everyone who reads this blog knows my feelings about seeing lopsided blowouts in high school soccer games. I’ve never been a fan of those types of games and I never will be.

One game in particular has convinced me something must be done to put an end to these blowouts.

I was stunned to see Juan Diego had destroyed Grantsville by an unbelievable 22-0 margin in a Region 11 game last Thursday. The Soaring Eagle led 13-0 by halftime and 15 different players scored in the blowout. It was an ugly affair and I couldn’t help feeling sorry for the Grantsville players who suffered through an 80-minute embarrassment like that.

Now, I’m not here to condemn Juan Diego for the score line. The fact that 15 different players scored and no single player scored more than three goals means the Soaring Eagle took some measures to keep it from getting out of hand. But that effort was going to be an uphill battle, given the already stark difference in talent level between the two teams.

Juan Diego is good enough to beat 5A teams. Grantsville has given up 76 goals in six games – all losses – but has faced only one team with a winning record. Even before facing the Soaring Eagle, the Cowboys lost by an average margin of nine goals while playing teams like Carbon, Tooele and Taylorsville.

This 22-0 debacle is just the latest in a trend of increasingly lopsided results for struggling programs. Roy has been beaten badly by nearly every one of its Region 1 foes, with a 14-0 loss to Davis being the worst of the lot. First-year school Stansbury has suffered 9-0 and 10-0 losses twice this season and lost 12-1 to Pleasant Grove in the preseason. And Kearns has endured a pair of 10-0 results in its eight losses.

My point in rehashing these results is to propose a change. I feel like the time has come to add a mercy rule to high school soccer. We have mercy rules already in place for football, softball and baseball at the high school level. Although these rules have not eliminated lopsided results from happening, they have prevented blowouts from being much worse than they could be in most cases.

My proposal for a soccer mercy rule is simple: Once a team takes a ten-goal lead, the game ends in whatever minute it is in at that point. It would allow a winning team to play hard to final whistle while saving an overmatched team from getting a loss rubbed into their faces so to speak.

What are your thoughts on having a mercy rule in high school soccer? Is it a good idea or a bad idea?

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