After Grantsville barely lost its first soccer match to Carbon on Tuesday 0-1, it looked liked the Cowboys might be primed for a tight match against 4A neighbor Stansbury High School on Wednesday. It didn’t happen as the Stallions spent the game taking nearly 30 shots at Grantsville’s goalkeepers and rolled to a 9-0 victory over the Cowboys.

“The girls got a little intimidated out there because they know most of the girls on the Stansbury team and know that the can play,” said Grantsville coach Jason Hales. “It’s a bit like a sibling rivalry.”

Stansbury coach Tracy Riggenberg was pleased with the season-opening win, but knows the competition will jump tremendously from here on out.

“It was a good win and l liked what I saw out there, but we have a lot of work to do. We host Westlake tomorrow and it will be a much tougher game,” RIggenberg said. “We really need to focus on conditioning because our region is so strong and the teams are so deep. We only had 22 players try out where teams in our region usually have about 80 players who want play.”

Stansbury scored three quick goals and then Grantsville seemed to settle down to stop the bleeding somewhat until the Stallions scored a fourth goal right before intermission to lead 4-0 at the break. The Cowboy defenders made some plays to stop the goals as did their goalkeepers Desiray Haas in the first half and Hayley Mander in the second half. But the onslaught of shots from the Stallions was just too much.

Both teams looked tired in the second half, but Stansbury managed five more goals in the blowout victory.

Things did not start well for the Cowboys with an own goal to open the game, then Cierra Golden connected on a shot for the Stallions to make it 2-0. Kaitlyn Turner soon added a goal to make it 3-0.

Stansbury continued to blast away at the Grantsville net, but Cowboy defenders Renee Castagno and Mandy Parsons made some strong defensive plays and Haas was working hard in front of the net.

With only about two minutes until intermission, Stansbury senior Lauren Beilfuss connected from a short distance to make it 4-0 for the visitors. The Stallions’ Chelsie Pritzkau nearly popped in a fifth goal for her team, but the ball bounced off the post and the Stallions led 4-0 at halftime.

Stansbury continued to dominate in the second half and scored three quick goals as senior captain Kahri Golden continually pushed the ball toward the net. Kahri Golden connected on a long 20-yard high shot out of the reach of the goalkeeper and just under the crossbar to make it 5-0 for the Stallions. Kahri Golden then hit Erica Pool with a crisp pass and Pool knocked it in to make it 6-0.

Kahri Golden scored her second goal of the game soon after Pool’s goal to increase the lead to 7-0 for the Stallions. Midway through the second half, Ali Riegert popped in a goal to make it 8-0. Later, Kahri Golden scored her third goal of the second half to complete a hat trick for the game and make the final 9-0 for Stansbury.

The Stallions host Westlake today who they defeated 3-2 last season in the first year for both schools. It was one of Stansbury’s two victories last season. The Stallions will travel to Taylorsville on Tuesday.

Grantsville was better on offense in Tuesday’s 0-1 lost to Carbon. The coach said they had about 20 shots on goal compared to hardly any shots against Stansbury.

Senior Anna Tuckett kept up the pressure with four shots while sophomore Sidney Tippets had three shots and freshman Justice Wheeler had three shots.

Hass and Mander also played well in the net limiting Carbon to one goal.

The Cowboys play at Cyprus today and host Rowland Hall on Aug. 19.

Mark Watson: mwatson@tooeletranscript.com