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Jameson Jones of Timpanogos (6) and teammate Parker Harvey celebrate after Parker scored a goal against Orem in a 4A boys lacrosse first round state tournament game on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Micah Lefave of Timpanogos (7) defends Orem's Roman Richards during a 4A boys lacrosse first round state tournament game on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Devin Chiang of Timpanogos (4) takes a shot during a 4A boys lacrosse first round state tournament game against Orem on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Three Timpanogos defenders surround Orem's Ayden Rasmussen during a 4A boys lacrosse first round state tournament game on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Timpanogos goalie Cyrus Guereca prepares to pass the ball during a 4A boys lacrosse first round state tournament game against Orem on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Parker Harvey of Timpanogos (left) and Orem's Hank Nicholes battle at the draw during a 4A boys lacrosse first round state tournament game on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Timpanogos goalie Cyrus Guereca stretches the leg of teammate Tash Litster because of cramping during a 4A boys lacrosse first round state tournament game against Orem on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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Orem's Ayden Rasmussen, 54, is introduced before the start of a 4A boys lacrosse first round playoff game with Timpanogos on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

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The Orem boys lacrosse team gathers together before the start of a first round 4A state tournament game against Timpanogos on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.

Darnell Dickson, Daily Herald

❮ ❯

Timpanogos boys lacrosse coach Toby Ryan said a few days ago his seniors talked about how they had never won a state playoff game.

They can now check that box.

The No. 9 seed T-Wolves dominated possession and played lockdown defense in the second half, pulling away from No. 8 Orem 10-4 on Tuesday in a first round 4A state playoff game.

“It’s good for the seniors because they’ve never had that opportunity,” Ryan said. “Now they get to say they won a playoff game. And to do it against your rival, that’s even better.”

The two teams split their Region 8 series this season, Orem winning at home on April 15 (8-7) and Timpanogos earning a 13-9 victory on its home field May 2.

Devin Chiang scored four goals on Tuesday, including three in the third quarter, and Jameson James added three more for Timpanogos (8-9). T-Wolves goalie Cyrus Guereca turned away a half-dozen Tigers shots to help his team advance.

Timpanogos (8-8) dominated the first quarter by holding possession and turning over the Orem offense. Chiang got the T-Wolves first goal at the 10:32 mark, followed by a pair of goals from Jones for a 3-0 Timpanogos lead.

Orem (9-7) got the ball to its top scorer, Jake Archibald, in the second quarter and the move paid off. Archibald scored twice, including a leaping shot where he collided with Guereca in the crease, to close the deficit to 3-2. Jones made a nice pass to Parker Harvey for a score and a 4-2 Timpanogos advantage. With 53.4 seconds to play in the first half, Archibald made a nifty reverse pivot and scored, bringing Orem to within one, 4-3, at halftime.

We changed our defense a little bit in the second half, a little gimmicky thing that we do,” Ryan said. “We manned off their best scorer (Archibald). We just said, ‘If they can beat us with someone else, go for it.’ So holding them to one goal in the second half was awesome.”

Chiang got loose in the third quarter scoring three times. His third goal came with just 10.1 seconds to play and gave the T-Wolves a 7-3 lead heading into the fourth quarter.

“Orem was playing a zone defense so I was staying out of that zone,” Chiang said. “They were doubling guys, so as a team we worked together. We made a lot of good passes which left some guys open for wide open shots. We had really good movement. We brought a lot of energy, especially in that third quarter. That’s something I really liked. We really picked it up.”

Goals from Jones, Harvey and Micah Lefave gave the T-Wolves a commanding 10-3 lead with 8:10 to play in the fourth.

“We turned the ball over a ton in the second quarter,” Ryan said. “We didn’t keep guys in front of us on defense. We had a lot of shots close in the crease but we just got sloppy in the second quarter. The first, third and fourth quarter, I thought we played great. Our ground balls were as clean as they’ve been all year. We possessed the ball because we slowed things down.

“We talked about it at halftime. We were playing so frantic because Orem was coming out on us pressing, so we said, ‘Let’s just slow it down.’ As we slow it down, we move it side to side and we get good shots.”

The T-Wolves reward for beating Orem is a date with No. 1 seed Judge Memorial on Saturday in the 4A quarterfinals. The Bulldogs opened the tournament with a 22-2 thrashing of No. 16 Hillcrest.

“Good luck, right?” Ryan said. “We’ll go out there and do our best. I always tell the kids, let’s go get in front of them a little bit and just see what we can do. If they beat you, they beat you. But we can let them know they were in a fight.”

Chiang said, “Hopefully we can pull off a miracle, you know?”

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