Utah Gives Exceptional Performance at 2006 Regionals
U18G Avalanche Falls Just Short of Championship Crown

Congratulations to all of the teams who represented Utah at the 2006 Far West Regional Championships. State Technical Director Greg Maas attended the tournament and said, "I am extremely proud of Utah's performance at this year's Far West Regionals. Utah set an unprecendented record of 12 teams advancing to the Quarterfinals, and fell just short of a Regional Championship with the U18 Avalanche team who succumbed 2-1 to Cal South in a heroic Battle. Utah has once again proven that we are a force in Region IV soccer, and now the challenge is for our coaches and players to raise our expectations even higher as we prepare for next year."

Avalanche U18 lost to CA-South Surf in the Finals Sunday. Both teams battled hard for the first half with neither team giving up a goal. At about the 58th minute an Avalanche player was given a red card and they played with 10 players for the rest of the match. At the 68th minute Surf was fouled and scored a goal when a long free kick was headed into the goal at the far post. Another goal was scored by Surf in the 86th minute in a great individual effort. In stoppage time Megan Ohai of Avalanche beat several players and scored on a rocket shot from outside of the 18. The game ended 1-2. Avalanche played Surf during the preliminaries and beat them 2-0. During the games leading up to the finals Avalanche beat top Region IV teams from Hawaii, Colorado (2), and CA-North and earned the respect of many.

Some interesting facts:

Twelve Utah teams advanced to quarterfinals
Two Utah teams advanced to semifinals
One Utah team advanced to finals
Last time Utah won a Regional Championship was 1999 with U19G Devastation
In the previous ten years two teams have played in the finals: 2005, Inter FC U19G and 2002, Celtic Storm U15G

In 2007 Far Western Regional Championships will be play in Las Vegas--start stocking up on sunscreen and gatorade.