No. 3 American Fork boys lacrosse dominates No. 6 Fremont to earn trip to 6A semifinals
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- American Fork’s Ethan Genessy (left) heads upfield against Fremont in a 6A boys lacrosse state tournament quarterfinal game on Saturday, May 21, 2022.
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- American Fork’s Tate Fisher (left) and Dawson Wilde celebrate a goal scored against Fremont in a 6A boys lacrosse quarterfinal on Saturday, May 21, 2022.
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- American Fork’s Zach Bezzant (right) and Fremont’s Corbin Platt get ready for the draw during a 6A boys lacrosse state quarterfinal game on Saturday, May 21, 2022.
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- American Fork’s Noah Fisher (20) attacks in the offensive end against Fremont in the 6A boys state quarterfinals on Saturday, May 21, 2022.
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- American Fork’s Camden Oswald (left) starts the offense against Fremont in the 6A boys lacrosse state quarterfinals on Saturday, May 21, 2022.
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- American Fork’s Taylor Bezzant passes the ball upfield against Fremont in the 6A boys lacrosse quarterfinals on Saturday, May 21, 2022.
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- American Fork’s Zach Bezzant (right) wins the draw against Fremont in a 6A boys lacrosse state quarterfinal game on Saturday, May 21, 2022.
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- The American Fork boys lacrosse team celebrates an 18-5 victory against Fremont in the 6A state quarterfinals on Saturday, May 21, 2022.
Next Wednesday will be a challenge for the No. 3 American Fork boys lacrosse team.
Saturday’s 18-5 domination of No. 6 Fremont assures the Cavemen their first trip to the 6A state semifinals. Earlier on that same day, 16 of the team’s seniors will be donning mortar boards and robes for their high school graduation.
In the words of Toros cheerleader Torrance Shipman, “Bring it on.”
(It’s a movie reference. Look it up.)
“It’ll be an emotional day, so it’s scary,” AF coach Tyson Poole said. “It’ll not only be a semifinal game but they will be sitting all day with graduation. It’s not the best opportunity outcome, but we’re going to have to figure out how to dig deep and go.”
American Fork (15-2) earned the semifinal berth by jumping all over Fremont early in the quarterfinals, racing to a 7-0 lead in the first quarter. Junior Tate Fisher scored four times and senior Noah Fisher added two goals as the Cavemen took control.
“We came out and we started moving the ball around,” Tate Fisher said. “We had some great shots and some great assists. I feel like we’ve just got to mold together. One person can’t be doing everything. We like the way that the coaches have prepared us for the state tournament. We have some new kids that have been balling out.”
Fremont (13-5) found some life early in the second quarter with goals from Davis Searle and Carson Isaacson to trim the deficit to 7-2. But American Fork responded with four more goals for an 11-2 halftime advantage. The highlight of the run was a steal and attacking run by defender Ethan Genessy. He passed to Tate Fisher, who found Noah Fisher for a pretty over-the-shoulder shot and the score.
“The players showed the unselfishness we’ve been preaching all year,” Poole said. “We told them to not stress about trying to go out and getting the big glory goals. They need to do the small things that get our team active. So from the first whistle that was the big thing. We want to come out, run fast and get into a rhythm. The unselfish plays really speak volumes to what we’re capable of.”
American Fork had a 15-2 lead at the end of the third quarter and the fourth was played under a running clock.
It was an impressive performance by the Caveman defense, which neutralized Fremont’s powerful offense that had averaged 17 goals per game this season.
“My defensive guys are dogs,” Poole said. “The understand and have a high-level IQ. Lacrosse is all about high-pressure defense, just playing and owning your matchups and having accountability. That’s kind of how we play around here.”
Tate Fisher scored seven goals to lead the offense for American Fork. The Cavemen will play No. 2 Davis (18-1) in the semifinals on Wednesday at 6 p.m. at Westminster College.
“Getting to the semifinals means everything to this group,” Poole said. “We lost the COVID year with the seniors. Because of that, we’ve talked about all year that if we kind of dig deep, from first quarter to fourth and compete, we really have a strong chance of going far in the tournament. Getting to the state finals would be awesome. We’ve never done it before in our program history. So that’s the goal, but we want to give the seniors a cool opportunity to get out of there on a good note.”
Skyline wins 5A boys tennis title
Skyline held off Brighton for the 5A boys state tennis team title at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City on Saturday.
The Eagles won both doubles titles and the Bengals claimed all three singles championships, but Skyline finished with 21 points and Brighton ended up with 20. Woods Cross was third with ten points.
For the Eagles it was the their fourth straight state team title.
Orem tied for fourth with Olympus, scoring five points, and Salem Hills tied for sixth with Alta, Salem Hills, Springville and Wasatch with four points each.
The Wasatch 2nd Doubles team of Cole Ritchie and Ty Greenwood was the only local team to advance to a final, where they fell to Kyle Rasmussen and Sam Stewart of Skyline 6-1, 6-2.
Utah Valley semifinalists included Orem’s 2nd Doubles team of Jonah Nield and Oleksandr Voronetskyi; Orem’s 1st Doubles team of Solomon Jones and Davis Dial; Salem Hills’ 1st Doubles team of Steve Strong and Micah Flint; Springville’s Dylan Corfield in 3rd Singles and Salem Hills’ Seth Meservy in 2nd Singles.
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