High school boys soccer: Farmington wraps up dominant regular season with convincing win over Syracuse

The Farmington Phoenix showed why they’re the Region 1 champions and why they have the best overall record in 6A on Friday night as they cruised to their most dominant win of the season, winning 5-1 over the Syracuse Titans.

The only loss the Phoenix suffered this year was a shootout road loss against the Layton Lancers.

Since the loss in late March, Farmington has won nine in a row for a 9-1 region record, which is two games ahead of the second-place Fremont Silverwolves.

“This is a pretty tight-knit group,” said Farmington head coach Aaron Soelberg. “Especially with the seniors, they’re good friends and they’ve really worked on their connection and continuity.

“We try to harness the brotherhood, looking after your teammates and putting the team first. They’re playing free, they’re trusting each other and tonight was probably the best we’ve played all year. The boys are peaking at the right time.”

Farmington took control of the game early in the first half and didn’t look back. The opening goal was scored by the Phoenix’s Jackson Cheney, who punched in a ball that ricocheted off the Syracuse keeper.

Cheney was followed up by Josh Foster, who scored two goals before the end of the half for a 3-0 Farmington lead.

“It’s just been fun playing with everyone and we all want to win and it really has come together this year,” said Foster. “I think everyone wants to win so bad. Sometimes we get chippy in practice but at the end of the day it comes out on the field. We work hard for each other and we have each other’s backs.”

Syracuse found a goal early in the second half, but Farmington’s Jake Peterson scored one of his own to take the 4-1 lead. Then with 15 minutes left, Foster crossed a ball to Mac Jensen for the fifth and final goal of Farmington’s regular season.

“We’ve been working on getting these guys to see those open runs, to get your eyes up and see the next guy,” Soelberg said. “Even in the games we’ve gotten down there’s no panic. They’ve known, ‘Hey, we’re going to come in and find that connection.’ It’s just coming together really nicely for us.”

It was a confidence boosting win, as Farmington was upset in the 6A quarterfinals last year by Syracuse, which went on to win the 6A title.

“It feels good. I have a ton of respect for (Syracuse coach) Josh (Kealamakia). They have a good team over there and our first match with them was pretty close,” said Soelberg. “We knew playing at home on senior night that they would just flourish tonight.”

The win tied a bow on Farmington’s best regular season since the school opened in 2018. Still, the Phoenix are looking forward to the 6A state tournament.

“This is the best I’ve felt personally heading into the tournament,” said Soelberg. “We’re not coming in cocky; we’re coming in confident. We know who we are, we know what we want to do, we know what kind of players we have and it is a good feeling. Now we’ve got to go prove it, but right now these guys are feeling on cloud 9.”