High school girls lacrosse: Last minute score makes Olympus the 5A state champion

The 5A girls lacrosse championship pitted Olympus against Park City.

Heading into the title game, Park City was the heavy favorite. The Miners hadn’t lost a game all season and had always been able to handle Olympus fairly easily when facing them in the past.

As the saying goes, however, there is a first time for everything.

With the game tied 9-9 with two minutes to go, Olympus sophomore Hazel Baker scored to help the Titans complete the upsets of all upsets, securing the 10-9 victory and 5A state championship. 

“I kept looking over at the clock tick down and once it hit zero I just started running,” said an excited Baker.

Early on in the game, it looked like Park City would raise the coveted trophy. The Miners led 5-1 midway through the first half and were sitting pretty. That’s when the wheels slowly started to come off.

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Olympus took the opportunity and ran with it. Three straight goals by junior Eva Thorn and a goal by Lizzie Anne tied the game late in the first half. Olympus would have been content to go into halftime with the score tied, but momentum was on the Titans’ side.

With just seven seconds left in the half Hannah Nelson fired a shot past the Park City keeper to give Olympus a 6-5 edge going into the break.

The second half was a back and forth affair, as the teams traded goals as the half progressed, that is until Baker found the title clinching goal with the clock ticking down.

Olympus also had a very solid performance from Hannah Nelson, who scored four goals on the night. Titans Goalkeeper Mary Ward saved a total of 11 shots in the game.

Park City totaled 14 shots on goal, while Olympus peppered the Park City goal with 22 shots of their own.

“They are the reigning champs but they’re not as scary as we thought they were and that’s all that matters,” Olympus head coach Zana Spratling said. “We can be just as scary too.”