San Juan soccer splits matches, volleyball drops a couple, cross country team readies for regions

The San Juan girls soccer team broke a three-game losing streak on Tuesday, September 29 with a convincing 9-1 win over South Sevier in Monroe, UT.

The Lady Broncos exploded for four goals in the first half and five in the second to leave the Lady Rams in the dust. Emily Jacobsen led the way with four goals on the day, Shae Nielson scored three, and Abby Jacobsen and Kyrell Patterson got one apiece.

On Thursday, October 1 San Juan traveled to Moab looking to sweep the week against Grand County. The Lady Broncos and Lady Red Devils played to a 2-2 tie in Blanding September 15.

It was another exciting, close match between the two rivals. San Juan jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half, but Grand stormed back to tie in the second. Just like in their first meeting, the game remained tied at the end of regulation.

But this time Grand was able to strike in the overtime period and steal a 3-2 win over the Lady Broncos. Jacobsen scored both goals for San Juan and Emilie Palmer made 20 saves in the OT loss.

San Juan was 3-8-1 overall entering this week and 1-7-1 in Region 12 play with one game remaining in their regular season.

They were scheduled to host South Sevier in a make-up game on Tuesday, October 6. Following that matchup, the Utah High School Activities Association will release the final 3A RPI standings. The state tournament begins this Saturday, October 10. 

Volleyball

The San Juan High School volleyball team was looking to gain ground on Region 12 opponents when they hosted the South Sevier Lady Rams and Richfield Lady Wildcats this past Friday and Saturday, October 2-3.

Those opponents didn’t oblige though, handing the Lady Broncos back-to-back region losses in the SJHS gymnasium.

On Friday, South Sevier jumped out to a two-set lead with 25-20 and 25-10 wins over San Juan. The Lady Broncos rallied for a hard-fought 26-24 win in the third set. But the Lady Rams closed out the match with a 25-17 fourth set.

On Saturday the Lady Broncos again suffered a 3-1 loss in front of their home fans, this time to the Richfield Lady Wildcats.

The losses drop SJHS to 5-13 on the year and 0-8 in Region 12. They’re 17th in the most recent RPI standings and are down to their final two regular season matches of the regular season.

They’re off this week, but they’ll host Emery on Wednesday, October 14 and head to Moab to play Grand on the following Tuesday, October 20. The state tournament begins on October 24.

Cross country

The Bronco cross country teams welcomed Monticello, Grand County, Montezuma-Cortez, and Dolores to Blanding on Wednesday, September 30 for the annual John Thornton Invitational.

In the boys 5K, the rival Buckaroos snuck the team championship away from the host team by just three points, 37-40. The top San Juan finisher was senior Cameron Jensen, in fourth with a time of 19:10.

The second Bronco across the line was senior Conner Black in sixth overall with a 19:50. Junior Spencer Jensen and freshman Edward Lyman finished ninth and tenth in 20:30 and 20:36 respectively.

Junior Daniel Jolley came home 14th for San Juan in 21:24, senior Travis Black finished 16th overall in 21:56, and freshman Toby Ward took the final point-scoring position in 17th with a 22:06.

In the girls race, San Juan won the team championship over Montezuma-Cortez 23-36. The Lady Broncos were led by junior Ella Lyman in fourth overall with her time of 25:27. Senior Lydia Pugh was right behind her in fifth with a 26:00.

A foursome of San Juan runners, juniors Sofia Hook and Cheyenne Blackhorse, and sophomores Saylor Perkins and Josie Lott, came home tenth through 13th with times of 27:44, 28:30, 28:50, and 28:51 respectively.

Freshman Ashley Goff grabbed the final points for San Juan, finishing 18th overall in 32:57.

The teams were scheduled to run in the Chicken Creek Challenge in Mancos, CO on Saturday, October 3, but due to fear surrounding COVID-19 Mancos High School did not permit schools from other states to participate.

Instead, San Juan traveled to Bluff to run the new river trail from Sand Island to Recapture Lodge and enjoyed some pancakes afterward.

The Bronco harriers will take a week to get set for the Region 12 Championships Tuesday, October 13 at the Carbon Country Club in Helper, UT.