San Juan girls soccer continues to improve

The San Juan High School girls soccer team has picked up two wins through the first half of the 2020 regular season while suffering five losses.

The Lady Broncos swept the season series with Gunnison Valley 6-0 on August 21 in Gunnison and 5-1 on August 25 in Blanding.

The five losses have all come on the road, at Parowan August 22 and at Richfield, Carbon, and Emery September 1, 3, and 8 respectively.

Just looking at the scoreboard, it’s easy to see that San Juan has vastly improved since the program began in 2017. 2020 is just the second season for the Lady Broncos at the varsity level.

Fourth-year head coach Jay Jones said he is “very proud of how the girls have improved. To go from nothing four years ago to competing this year is really excellent.”

Offensively, San Juan is led by senior Emily Jacobsen, who has scored 11 of the Lady Broncos’ 14 goals. Senior Kyrell Patterson has two taters on the year, and sophomore Ashlyn Palmer rounds out the scoring with one.

Senior goalkeeper Emilie Palmer has been amazing between the pipes for San Juan so far, stopping 104 opponent shots in just seven games. Coach Jones said the Lady Bronco defense has relied on Palmer too much to begin the year, and they’re working to get her more support.

According to Jones, the main accomplishment coaches are striving for at this point in the season is instilling confidence in the players to shoot more often and from more areas of the field.

The Lady Broncos were set for a couple key Region 12 matchups when the week began, at home versus Grand on Tuesday, September 15 and on the road at Richfield Thursday, September 17.