By Justin Adams | [email protected]

The Mountain Ridge High girls soccer team season got off to an explosive start Tuesday evening as the team rattled off three goals in the first four minutes against West Jordan. The team never looked back, on the way to a 8-0 victory (shortened by 20 minutes due to a mercy rule). 

Head coach Eric Arthur said he wasn’t surprised at all by his team’s performance.

“The offense has really been clicking in practice. We’ve only had four practices but they really took to each other right away,” he said. 

The lopsided score allowed Arthur to give playing time to more players than he normally would.

“We told them that everyone who steps out onto the field needs to give 100% and I feel like they gave that to me today,” he said.

This year’s team is quite a bit different from last year’s. As a first-year school in 2019, the Sentinels had just one senior and only won three games in its inaugural season. 

“It’s a lot different,” said Arthur. “I think we have eight seniors this year. We’re pretty balanced between all the grades. The maturity level between last year and this year is night and day. Even the younger players, they’ve grasped what high school soccer is about and that it’s really a team concept.”

Mountain Ridge also has a new addition to the team in Sophie White, a senior forward who scored four of the team’s eight goals. This is White’s first year of playing high school soccer, having previously prioritized playing for elite level club teams. Committed to playing D1 soccer for the University of Florida (at least according to one soccer recruiting website), Arthur said they expect White to score a lot of goals this year. 

Other players who Arthur expects to be team leaders throughout the season include junior defender Kamile McKane, junior forward Ellie Raulinaitis, and sophomore forward Cortnee Johnson. 

Mountain Ridge’s next game will be on Saturday, Aug 8 at 7:15 at Herriman High where they will aim to avenge last year’s 5-0 loss to the cross-town foe.