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Maple Mountain's Madison Neilson fights for possession during her team's 3-0 loss to Olympus in the state semifinals. October 20, 2026

Christy Marshall, Special to the Daily Herald

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Maple Mountain players console one another following their semifinal loss to Olympus on Tuesday. October 20, 2026

Christy Marshall, Special to the Daily Herald

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Maple Mountain coach Brynlie Mellor talks to her team following the Golden Eagle's 3-0 loss to Olympus on Tuesday. October 20, 2026

Christy Marshall, Special to the Daily Herald

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Maple Mountain's Graycie Arnold tracks down the ball during her team's loss to Olympus on Tuesday. October 20, 2026

Christy Marshall, Special to the Daily Herald

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Ranked No. 52 in the state of Utah prior to the season, the fact that the Maple Mountain girls soccer team even finished where it did was a remarkable achievement in and of itself.

That was the message conveyed by Golden Eagle soccer coach Brynlie Mellor to her players following their tough 3-0 loss to Olympus in state semifinal action action on Tuesday. Tears were shed amongst many heartfelt hugs, as is typically the case, although there was a lot of positives to be had regarding how the Golden Eagles battled on Tuesday on top of exceeding everyone’s expectations, including their own.

“I honestly didn’t think we’d be able to get here with this being my first year coaching the program,” Mellor, who took over the head coaching duties just prior to the season, said. “They had us ranked No. 52 in the state at the beginning of the year, so no one expected much of anything from us. I thought it might take us some time — maybe next year to get this far, but the fact that we did it this year — all the credit goes to the girls and the work they put in.”

On Tuesday, unfortunately the Maple Mountain, the player’s hard work didn’t begin to reveal itself until the second half of play.

From the start the Titans proved to be the more aggressive and settled team for the game’s first 40 minutes which saw them deal a 3-0 deficit to the Golden Eagles heading into halftime.

“We had way too much anxiety. It was straight up too much anxiety, I’d say. Olympus came out and showed that they were handling the pressure better,” Mellor assessed. “We weren’t Maple Mountain during that first 40 minutes. So we talked about it, as a team, and fortunately we did show what we are better in the second half, but came up short.”

But that’s not to say Maple Mountain didn’t warrant a lot of opportunity with its play throughout the final 40 minutes.

Aggressive and settled in, the Golden Eagles controlled most of the second half possession and forged some prime goal-scoring opportunities, as a result. But time and again balls would clank off the post or be sent in just wide of the target in preventing any serious comeback opportunity despite the uptick in overall performance.

“It showed that they wanted it and that the believed they could get it done despite being down 3-0,” Mellor said. “They put everything out there, and even though it didn’t work out the way we hoped or maybe even deserved, I was proud of how they played. We had several shots just miss, and yeah, if those go in it may have made it more interesting, but what can you do?”

Despite the loss, there’s every reason to be optimistic regarding the future which was forged by many top graduating seniors such as Piper Hoyt, Kate Austin and Abigail Chavez, among several others. Indeed Maple Mountain’s 2026 roster was flush with underclassmen, many of whom played big roles for the team with all of them returning to perhaps surpass the remarkable run procured this past season.

“We’re excited about the potential that we have here,” Mellor said. “We learned a lot — I know I did as a first-year coach, and the entire experience has been awesome. Like I said, I wasn’t really expecting us to advance this far, but now that we did, it makes me even more excited for the future. I really feel like you’re going to see us in the finals next year regardless of if they have us compete again in 5A, 6A or 4A. We’re going to be there. I really believe that.”