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Salem Hills senior Ruby Lindstrom and sophomore Ilene Bowler celebrate their 2-1 playoff win over Timpview on Tuesday. October 13, 2026

Brandon Gurney, Daily Herald

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Salem Hills celebrates its first trip to the state quarterfinal round in program history following its 2-1 win over Timpview. October 13, 2026

Brandon Gurney, Daily Herald

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Salem Hills goalkeeper Ellie Taylor kicks the ball downfield following a save versus Timpview on Tuesday. October 13, 2026

Brandon Gurney, Daily Herald

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Salem Hills' Elyse Lyman tracks down Timpview's Maggie Barajas during the Skyhawk's 2-1 win on Tuesday. October 13, 2026

Brandon Gurney, Daily Herald

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As the first overtime period of Salem Hills’ playoff match versus Timpview on Tuesday reached the midway point, Skyhawk senior Megan Lyman decided to just give it a go, and hope for the best. Racing down the right side of Timpview’s goal, Lyman received a well-placed pass from teammate Iris Larsen before unleashing a shot quite a distance away that ultimately hit the back of the net for the 2-1 victory.

“At the beginning of the overtime my coaches told me to just run through everything, no matter what. So that’s what I did,” Lyman said. “I got the ball, ran through, saw the goal and decided, ‘why not just take a shot?’ Then it went in and it was just pure happiness. It felt so amazing.”

Lyman’s teammates mobbed her soon thereafter to celebrate what was undoubtedly the best win in program history in taking down Region 7 foe and No. 7-seeded Timpview. For Salem Hills coach Kyra Peery, she focused on her team’s historical achievement of advancing to the state quarterfinal round for the first time in program history, and like Lyman, relished the moment while recognizing the team now has a quick turnaround in taking on No. 2 seed Maple Mountain in the quarterfinal round.

“It’s a game of fine lines, … and so, when it comes to a game of fine lines, you got to take care of your chances, and our girls took care of their chances today,” Peery said.

Perhaps the finest line that was drawn came around the midway point of the first half as Salem Hills set up for a free kick just outside of the penalty box. In a play that was well-rehearsed prior, three Skyhawk players surrounded the ball and utilized some deception in feigning a straight-ahead kick before passing the ball just enough to the right side to create a good enough angle around Timpview’s blocking wall for sophomore striker Ilene Bowler to find the back of the net.

“That’s a lot of practice on the girls, and a lot of repetition,” Peery said of the game’s initial goal. “Credit goes to the players for coming up in the big moment to do it. It takes a lot of repetition to get that one done. That’s the fun part of being a coach is the parts of the game that you can have some control over and help your team. We came together as coaches and did our best to put those plays in their hands. But then they executed it perfectly and that’s so satisfying to see for every coach we have here.”

Salem Hills held its 1-0 lead until the game’s 73rd minute when prolific goal-scorer Claire Badger scored a goal very reminiscent to Lyman’s golden goal to send the game to overtime. While Badger broke through in that instant, Salem Hills did a stellar job throughout in limiting her opportunities by applying a lot of  good pressure on the back end led by sweeper Ruby Lindstrom and goalkeeper Ellie Taylor, among others.

“Claire Badger is such a great talent and a threat, so we just had to stay organized and use a full team effort to defend her. She’s that good, and it’s not just her. Timpview is a very dangerous team,” Peery said.

Indeed Tuesday’s match marked the third time the Skyhawks played against the T-birds in less than a month’s time, losing the first two matches by scores of 2-1 and 3-2, respectively. But although the prior two matches did end up in losses, they both worked to supply a lot of confidence going into Tuesday’s match given the narrow outcomes.

“You always want to bring confidence to your players, and so we focus on what we need to fix from the previous times we play an opponent or from the previous game and then build confidence on what they did well and go from that,” Peery said.

But despite the tremendous defense applied, Timpview did break through toward the end of regulation, which could have proven debilitating and tough to recover from for most teams, although Salem Hills was ready for it while taking it in stride.

“We’ve been putting in mental training, and I mean literally mental training throughout the season,” Peery explained. “We spend 10 to 20 minutes of every practice doing mental training. Before warm-ups or every game they do the same thing. So they follow the process physically and mentally, and they’ve definitely seen it pay off.”

Indeed all of it paid off big on Tuesday, helping Salem Hills advance further than it every has in program history while looking to set even higher marks when taking on Region 7 champion Maple Mountain on Thursday.

“There’s just a lot of emotions right now, but good emotions,” Lyman summed up. “It was rough for a second there in this game, but being able to have the preparation we’ve worked to develop helped us so much, and I couldn’t be happier.”