Emotions were running high for both Tooele and Stansbury girls soccer teams Tuesday afternoon as they faced each other in Stansbury.

A lot of the girls are former teammates and there are still friendships that exist on both teams. Even sisters were pitted against each other as Tooele defender Jessica Johnson and Stansbury keeper Kelsey Johnson had to face each other.

Stansbury held their emotions in check and dominated the first half. The Stallions had the majority of good possessions and that brought more scoring opportunities. Erica Pool gave Stansbury a 1-0 halftime lead but Tooele came out on fire.

A trio of Tooele players earned goals for the Buffaloes in a spirited second-half comeback that earned them a hard-fought 3-2 victory over the Stallions.

Maybe it was the man-made tunnel that part of the Stansbury student body made for the soccer team before the game but the Stallions came out defensively and offensively in sync.

Pool and Kahri Golden opened up the offense early for Stansbury as Pool had a couple chances in the opening five minutes with two early shots on goal. Golden was forcing her way down to the Tooele territory and creating opportunities for the Stallions.

All of Stansbury’s chances were turned away by the Tooele defense of Jenna Morgan and Jessica Johnson and keeper Chelsie Bell, at least for the first 20 minutes.

A Tooele defensive lapse on a pass from Stansbury’s Abbey Beazer gave Pool a good opportunity to score in the 25th minute. Pool did not waste her chance as she whipped the ball into the net right in front of goal for a 1-0 Stansbury lead.

“The girls were definitely fired up and really wanted to win,” said Stansbury head coach Tracy Ringgenberg. “They need to have that attitude for every opponent, not just Tooele.”

For the remaining 15 minutes the Stansbury defense played extremely well in limiting the Tooele offensive strikes. Beazer, Ali Riegert and Lauren Beilfuss all stepped up and allowed only one serious chance of a Tooele goal. That came in the 35th minute when Jessica Anderson put a shot on goal but was turned away by Kelsey Johnson of Stansbury and kept the Stallions with a 1-0 lead at halftime

“A lot of the first half was psychological,” said Tooele head coach Donna Ward about her teams less than stellar first half. “A lot of the girls are still friends (with Stansbury players) and we even had sisters going against each other.”

In the second half, Tooele was a new team offensively. Airica Stewart, who sat out the first half for precautionary reasons, came out strong and used her speed to apply pressure. After getting a shot on goal in the 43rd minute, Stewart got another chance three minutes later and used her dribbling to get past a Stansbury defender and tied the game up at 1-1 in the 46th.

“I just told them at halftime that they need to play their game,” Ward said. “The second half is usually than our better half.”

With the game tied, Tooele and Stansbury went back and forth with having chances for a go-ahead goal. Anderson, Airica and Lizzie Stewart created chances for Tooele but came up empty while Rachel Luker, Kendal Levine and Golden pressured the Tooele defense but both teams couldn’t get a goal over a 20 minutes span.

All that changed in the 71st minute when Lizzie Stewart used her ball-handling skills to get the ball past the Stansbury keeper and poke the ball into the net to give Tooele their first lead of the game at 2-1.

While Stansbury was frantically trying to tie the game back up, it was Tooele that had a chance to add an insurance goal on a corner kick in the 79th minute. Tooele’s Anderson placed the corner perfectly at the foot of Makaylee Bird who chipped in the much-needed insurance goal to make the score 3-1.

The insurance goal was more essential than Tooele thought because in extra time the hustle of Stansbury’s Emily Lakin helped bring the game closer. Lakin found herself in perfect position after a couple rebounds and pounded a goal into the net to make it 3-2.

Stansbury had a couple more possessions with extra time remaining but could not get past the Tooele defense to seal the Buffalo victory. “I told them that I was proud of them at the end of the game because they played clean, amicable and not dirty,” Ward said.

Tooele will next host Highland on Sept. 10 at 3:30 p.m. while Stansbury’s next home game will also be against Highland on Sept. 15 at 3:30 p.m.

Jake Gordon: jgordon@tooeletranscript.com