6A lacrosse championship: Fremont holds off late charge to win first state title
-
- Fremont captain McKaylee Sargent (33) holds up the state championship trophy after defeating Mountain Ridge in the 6A final on Thursday, May 23, 2024, at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
-
- Fremont girls lacrosse players rush the field after winning the 6A state championship Thursday, May 23, 2024, at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
-
- Fremont girls lacrosse players hug and celebrate after winning the 6A state championship Thursday, May 23, 2024, at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman.
HERRIMAN — No. 2 Fremont High girls lacrosse gave up a goal at the 3:35 mark of the first quarter to go down 3-2, then used a 9-0 run across 25:41 of game time to build a seemingly insurmountable lead Thursday at Zions Bank Stadium.
The Silverwolves then faced a frenzied comeback bid but held on to defeat No. 4 Mountain Ridge 11-10 and win the 6A state championship.
“Twelve girls, one pack. They played like a pack today,” Fremont coach Seth Jones said. “We were able to hold them off. Mountain Ridge has been here for three years and we were just hungry for it.”
“Teams like Fremont … that don’t have clubs feeding them, these girls come in as sophomores and freshmen, and for us to be able to help them to put in the hard work and dedication to get to be a state champion speaks worlds of them. Hopefully we can get some more youth groups up there.”
McKaylee Sargent opened the scoring for Fremont (18-2) with a goal 33 seconds into play. Mountain Ridge (14-6) responded, then Azlyn Williams scored the first of her game-high four goals to give Fremont a 2-1 lead. That’s when MR scored twice for a 3-2 lead.
Williams started the Silverwolves’ onslaught with two consecutive goals, the second of which gave Fremont the lead for good with 11 seconds left in the first quarter. Sargent, Williams, Kali Parkinson, Raina Button, Jansie Jefferies and Kate Jenkins all scored before halftime and Fremont took a 10-3 lead into the break.
“Every single time the ball went in the goal I got so excited that we were one point closer to winning,” Williams said.
Sargent netted her third goal to put Fremont up 11-3 with 8:24 left in the third quarter. The score would be the last of the season for the Silverwolves as Mountain Ridge took over in the second half.
The Sentinels closed the gap to 10-6 after three quarters. Emery Clark, the leading MR scorer, netted her second goal of the game with 6:42 left in the fourth quarter to cut the Fremont lead to 11-8.
Fremont goalkeeper MacKenzie Souza made several key saves, perhaps the most important with 2:45 left in the game when she denied a Mountain Ridge shot to keep the lead at 11-8.
Taya Chalk scored both of her goals in the final minute, the last with 19 seconds left to make the score 11-10. On the final face-off, the ball went into Silverwolves’ territory and the clock ran out as the two teams scrambled for control.