The Evanston High School boys’ soccer team kept their state tournament hopes alive last week by accomplishing a first in program history: earning the season sweep of rival Star Valley with a 2-1 win.

“It was a little tighter than I wanted it to be, but we came out on top,” said EHS head coach Brian Richins. “I’ve never beaten Star Valley in Afton, so it was a pretty good feeling.”

The Red Devils owned the first half, scoring both of their goals over the match’s first 40 minutes.

“We were on the front foot, winning the ball, super-attacking mindset, super-aggressive,” Richins said. “You could tell Star Valley was frustrated. You could hear them yelling at each other — they were really uptight. And I thought our guys stood up to that well.”

The Red Devils scored less than a minute into the contest, when Jordan Mendez blasted a shot from just outside the box that hit the bar. The keeper misplayed it and it went in for the score; it was ruled an own goal, though Richins gave credit to Mendez for the shot.

“It may have been counted as an own goal, but Jordan took it down and scored it,” he said. “It was on the opening kick — we played it back to a midfielder, and he launched it to the outside, right on to Jordan’s foot. He and Edwin Burgos played around with it, and Jordan went around the corner with it and was able to knock it in.”

Burgos scored Evanston’s second goal — also in the first half — off of a rebound of a Mendez shot to make it 2-0.

“Jordan got free and smacked it,” Richins said. “It came back out on a deflection, and it went right to Edwin, and Edwin put it away beautifully.”

Star Valley was able to score before the end of the first half, and the two teams went into the break with the score 2-1. That’s how the game would end, with neither team able to find the back of the net over the last 40 minutes.

“It got pretty intense,” Richins said of the second half. “We ended up with two yellow cards. Brooks and Jordan both got yellows for running into their keeper. They were kinda iffy, but it is what it is. There was a plethora of fouls that went both directions. It was tense.”

Red Devil keeper Jaeger Liechty finished the game with an unofficial 19 saves, and Richins said a few of them were definitely highlight-worthy.

“Quite a few were your run-of-the mill, but Jaeger had a few saves that were incredible,” Richins said. “He had an outstanding game. He was putting his dropkicks where they needed to be, he was making huge saves — Elan Oliff named him the Player of the Game, and it was very well-deserved.”

Other players who came up big for the Red Devils included Victor Lozano in the midfield.

“Victor had a stop in the second half, where Star Valley switched the ball, and Jaeger was a little out of position,” Richins explained. “Their best goal scorer went to take a shot, and Victor jumped in front of it, and it deflected off of him and out of bounds. He made that play, and Elan named it the Play of the Game.”

The Red Devils came back to Earth a bit Saturday at home against Jackson, losing 11-3, though Jordan Mendez scored a pair of goals and Brooks Searle scored one. Coach Richins’ team will look to get back on track this weekend when they host Kelly Walsh and Natrona County to close out the regular season.