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6A Girls Lacrosse: Lone Peak goes down to the wire for state title

By Darnell Dickson - | May 25, 2023
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The Lone Peak girls lacrosse team poses with the 6A state championship trophy after beating Mountain Ridge 11-10 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Members of the Lone Peak girls lacrosse team race onto the field after beating Mountain Ridge 11-10 for the 6A state championship at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Members of the Lone Peak girls lacrosse team celebrate winning the 6A state championship at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak's Natasha Love (with headband) cries tears of joy after her team won the 6A state championship with an 11-10 victory against Mountain Ridge at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak's Maddie Potvin (3) races down the field with the ball during the 6A girls lacrosse state championship game against Mountain Ridge at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak goalie Ellie Fuller deflects a shot during the 6A girls lacrosse state championship game against Mountain Ridge at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak girls lacrosse coach Weslie Lundell gives instruction to her team during a time out at the 6A state championship game against Mountain Ridge at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak's Mickelle Cook (18) takes a shot while being defended by a Mountain Ridge player during the 6A girls lacrosse state championship game at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak's Katrina Maddox (center) takes a shot during the 6A girls lacrosse state championship game against Mountain Ridge at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak's Eliza Agate (35) screens off an opponent as she reaches for the ball during the 6A girls lacrosse state championship game at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak's Corinne Jones (right) battles for the ball with Tessa Mortensen of Mountain Ridge during the 6A girls lacrosse state championship at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak's Maddie Potvin (3) celebrates with her teammates after defeating Mountain Ridge 11-10 for the 6A state championship at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak goalie Ellie Fuller tries to control the ball after a Mountain Ridge shot during the 6A girls lacrosse state championship game at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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The Lone Peak girls lacrosse team holds up the 6A championship trophy after beating Mountain Ridge 11-10 at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak goalie Ellie Fuller (with her hand in the air) celebrates with teammates after the Knights won the 6A girls lacrosse state championship at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.
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Lone Peak senior Brooke Wright fires up her teammates before the start of the 6A girls lacrosse state championship game against Mountain Ridge at Zions Bank Stadium in Herriman on Thursday, May 25, 2023.

HERRIMAN — All season long, Lone Peak girls lacrosse coach Weslie Lundell has sung the praises of senior goalie Ellie Fuller.

Fuller definitely saved her best for last.

With her team clinging to a one-goal lead on Thursday in the 6A state championship game at Zions Bank Stadium, Fuller turned away a Mountain Ridge penalty shot with 11 seconds to play to secure a heart-pounding 11-10 victory.

No. 2 seed Lone Peak (18-2) took the lead with 36 seconds remaining on a goal from junior Katrina Maddox.  Mountain Ridge won the draw and aggressively attacked the goal, getting a penalty call with 11 seconds to play. Sentinels standout Emmery Clark, who had already scored four times, lined up for the shot with just Fuller in front of her.

“I think I just tried to clear my mind,” Fuller said. “I tried to just focus on that ball and keep other external factors out of it. That’s what it comes down to, is just focus on the ball.”

Fuller deflected Clark’s shot away, which allowed the clock to run out. The final horn sent the Lone Peak sideline racing onto the field to celebrate the state title.

“I am so proud of Ellie,” Lundell said. “She is a whole different athlete, even in these last two weeks. She’s incredible. She really honed in on, if she made a mistake, she would just forget it. I think that helped a lot because she was able to reset and get the next one.”

The match between the Knights and the defending state champions from Mountain Ridge was intense and incredibly close. There were eight ties and while the Sentinels led by two twice (5-3 in the first half and 7-5 early in the second), Lone Peak was always able to close the gap. Seven times the Knights fell behind only to tie the game up with a clutch goal.

With just under two minutes to play in the first half, Mikelle Cook scored for Lone Peak to tie things up at 5-5, but the Sentinels responded with a goal by Tessa Mortensen to give her team a 6-5 halftime edge.

“We knew today was going to be a battle, especially with it being a rematch,” said Lundell, referring to last year when Mountain Ridge beat her team in the semifinals. “So we really just wanted to focus on getting the draw and keeping possession on the attack. They were intercepting passes and so in the time outs and halftime we really had to talk about making those clean passes and settling so the passes wouldn’t be so easily intercepted.”

Mountain Ridge took its last lead at 10-9, with Taya Chalk winning the draw and racing down the field to score the go-ahead goal with 8:32 remaining. Lone Peak’s Eliza Agate bounced in a penalty shot with 4:03 to play to tie it at 10-all.

Fuller was brilliant the entire second half, stopping three Sentinels penalty shots. The last defensive gem set up the Knights with possession with just over two minutes to play. Lundell said the strategy was to keep possession of the ball and not give Mountain Ridge the chance to get down to their scoring end, but several penalties put Lone Peak in good scoring position and Maddox nailed her shot for the one-goal lead with 36 seconds to go, setting up the Knights’ last defensive stand.

“It was just so intense,” Lone Peak senior attacker Maddie Potvin said. “It’s hard to get out of your own head because any little thing that happens, you might want to blame it on yourself. But honestly, you just have to work as a team and hope for the best. You’re really just hoping that everyone of your teammates wants it as much as you do. We have wanted this for four years, and we finally got it.”

Cook and Agate led Lone Peak with three goals each. Potvin and Maddox had two apiece and Lauren Siri scored once.

The Knights’ 12-member senior class entered the program as freshmen in the first year of UHSAA-sanction girls lacrosse (2020), which was cut shot due to the pandemic. In 2021, Lone Peak lost to rival American Fork 12-10 in the B Division Championship. Last season, the Knights fell to Mountain Ridge 15-8 in the 6A semifinals.

“We’ve been waiting for this for so long and I’m really glad we got this in my senior year,” Fuller said. “We were all realizing in the back of our minds that this is our last chance because we have such a big graduating class this year. This was our big rivalry and we managed to win it so I couldn’t be happier right now.”

Potvin added: “I’m still shaking. I’m just so excited for everyone and just so happy. I was crying out of joy and I’ve never done that. Everything we’ve worked for on this team, we put into today and it paid off.”

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