Boys: No. 5 Copper Hills Narrowly Escapes Defeat

The No. 5 Copper Hills Grizzlies walked away from Jordan High School on Thursday with a 8-7 win over the Beatdiggers.
The Grizzlies scored first but Jordan answered with two goals of their own in a back and forth first quarter. Copper Hills went on a four goal run over five minutes to take a three goal lead. Jordan ended the run on a shorthanded goal by Mitch Woodhead. Copper Hills replied with a goal of their own just 15 seconds later. Both teams would trade goals before halftime, giving Copper Hills a 7-4 lead at the break.

Copper Hills came out of the break and scored just 30 seconds into the half. The rest of the third quarter was sloppy with play going back and forth constantly. Jordan managed to string together a two goal run to cut the Grizzly lead to two goals. The fourth quarter was more of the same as both teams fought to get quality possessions. Sloppy passes, great stick checks and poor shots plagued the game but Jordan broke the silence with a goal at the 7 minute mark.
Jordan continued to apply pressure but the Copper Hills zone couldn’t be beat. With less than 2 minutes remaining in the game, the Beatdiggers took a timeout to setup a play. Out of the timeout, Jordan took a long possession and got a great shot off, but it pinged off the crossbar. Jordan backed it up but when play resumed, Jordan threw a bad pass that went out of bounds. Copper Hills cleared the ball and eventually ran out the clock, hanging on to a key conference win.
“It was an up and down game,” said Copper Hills Head Coach Matt Evans. “At times we really went after it but at other times we let off and let them back in. Clearly they can play and they played really well.”
Copper Hills were led by Tyrel Eyre who had 4 goals. Copper Hills Goalie Talyn Bowman had 13 saves in the win. Jordan was led by Zach Pierce who had 3 goals and 2 assists. Jordan Goalie Hayden Babka had 9 saves. Copper Hills won 11 out of 19 face-offs.
Copper Hills will face rival West Jordan on Tuesday. Jordan will take on Riverton on April 26.