Alta hasn’t had to play from behind very often so far this season. Outside of its season opener against Skyridge, the Hawks have not trailed against any team and have opened the season with an 8-0 record.
So, when Brighton’s Josh Ellingson scored on an assist from Adem Odobasic in the third minute, Alta knew it needed to find a new way to win. The Hawks did exactly what they needed in Tuesday’s game as their offense piled on the goals for a 5-2 win over Brighton.
“I think in our very first game Skyridge scored on us first,” said Alta head coach Mackenzie Hyer. “Since then they’ve just come together and decided, ‘This is who we are and we’re just going to go out there and take care of business.’ Brighton came to play today and they really had us scrambling there at the beginning of the game.”
The momentum was certainly in favor of the Bengals after Ellingson’s opening goal. Brighton has struggled so far in Region 6 as it’s opened its first five region games with a 1-4 record, so the early goal was a confidence builder.
However, Alta wasn’t going down for long and its offense poured an avalanche on the Bengals defense, starting with Jack McAllister as he found Tanner Kunz for the equalizer in the 13th minute. Then it was Beckham Butler who scored consecutive goals, one in the 17th minute and the next in the 20th.
Within a seven minute span, Alta went from trailing 1-0 to taking a strong 3-1 lead.
“What was great was our response,” Hyer said. “We just settled in and you could just see it on their faces that our boys were like, ‘OK. Now we’re going to go.’ It was no longer about nerves and they were going to play our game.”
