Entering Wednesday's game against Park City High, the Brighton Bengals were undefeated with a goal differential of +189 on the season.
Park City Head Coach Micheal Persky said they knew Brighton would be a tough matchup.
“They are very talented,” Persky said. “They have deep talent and they have good coaching, and they’ve been playing together for a long time. They’re really well balanced on offense and very aggressive and physical on defense.”
After falling behind, Park City came back and tied it up in the fourth quarter, pushing the game to sudden death overtime.
The Miners took possession on their defensive half with little time remaining. With the ball, senior goalie AJ Silianoff saw a gap in the field and took off sprinting. AJ’s mom Kathy was in the stands.
“He’s going down and we see him just keep going and gets to like the 50 yard line, and suddenly, he just sprints down towards the other side of the field… and we’re like ‘noooo, you’re going to far!’ And then suddenly, he shot the ball, and it went in the goal,” Kathy Silianoff said. “It was like slow motion when we saw it happen and we just could not believe it. It was just so crazy. And everybody in the stands went nuts, everyone on the field went nuts.”
AJ said he didn’t start running with the intention to score.
“I was just going to try to hit the open guy but no one was open, so I started heading down. I didn’t expect to go all the way but no one slipped me so I just went all the way and shot it,” AJ Silianoff said. “I’m a goalie, I’m not typically the shooter. So it’s really special to see that go in, it’s really surreal. It didn’t feel real at all.”
Silianoff said he was confident his defense could have covered a Brighton counter attack if the ball didn’t go in the net.
Watch the goal here - fast forward to 01:29:00
The senior hopes to bring home a state championship. Playoffs begin May 14.
