Bear River girls lacrosse wins 4A state title, finishes season 19-0

Bear River High’s girls lacrosse team completed an unbeaten, 19-0 season by beating Juan Diego 12-8 in the 4A state championship game on a hot Thursday afternoon at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
Leading 4-3 in the first half, Jenna LaCroix and Marley Kierstead scored for the No. 1 Bears to pad the team’s lead. JD got within 8-6 in the second half, but BR reeled off four straight goals to take a 12-6 lead in the final minutes.
Thursday was Bear River’s second playoff game after beating Sky View 16-2 in the semifinal round — the Bears advanced past the first round via forfeit — following a regular season in which the Bears outscored their opponents 294-57.
After flying through a non-region schedule against the likes of Farmington, Box Elder, Jordan, Bingham and American Fork, the Bears won their 10 4A North region games by an average of 16.3 goals.
A year ago, the Bears went 15-2 with their only losses coming to Box Elder and then Waterford in a first-round playoff game.
With Thursday’s championship in hand, that makes it a combined 34-2 record with back-to-back region titles between the last two seasons for Bear River.
This season was the first year in which lacrosse was played in a traditional classification format.
Last season — this is also how the postseason worked before lacrosse was sanctioned — all the lacrosse teams were split into three playoff divisions based on where they landed in the RPI.