High school girls lacrosse: Brighton rolls past Corner Canyon to remain perfect this spring

Box score

Underdog Corner Canyon got off to a perfect start at Brighton on Friday nice, winning the opening faceoff and then capitalizing by scoring just a minute into the nonregion game.

All it did was wake the sleeping giant.

Brighton ripped off seven straight goals over the 13 minutes and never looked back as it rolled to the 16-6 victory to improve to 4-0 on the young girls lacrosse season.

Haley Taylor scored five goals for the Bengals, with Grace Rappl and Zoe Heffernan adding four each.

“My girls played so much like a team, our defensive rides looked good, our transitions looked good. I’m just so proud of how they played as a team, we’ve been working hard on that,” said Brighton coach Melissa Nash.

Brighton led 10-3 at the half and pushed it to as much as 15-3 before Corner Canyon tacked on a couple of late second-half goals. Simone Parker accounted for four of those Charger goals.

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Brighton is regarded as one of the top two or three teams in the state, and Friday’s convincing victory just further confirms that notion.

There were certainly question marks heading into the season after Brighton graduated nine seniors from last season, in what was supposed to be the first year as a UHSAA sanctioned sport.

“We were really gunning for state last year. It was devastating to have it be over, but this year I feel like more willing to be here. The time spent on the field is valuable cause you never know when it’s going to be gone,” said Nash.

Brighton’s coach said her players are pumped up for every practice, and even conditioning drills are fun after COVID-19 cut last year’s season well short.

One of the main constants for Brighton has been Haley Taylor. She was the team’s best player as a junior last season, and already she’s proven to be one of the best attacking players in the state.

She scored three of Brighton’s first five goals in the opening 12 minutes of the game.

“She’s definitely a threat and teams pick up on her so fast. In the first four or five minutes she’ll get three or four goals and then they face guard her rely tight, but she’s awesome at moving the ball around getting feeds in and breaking the face guard,” said Nash.

Heffernan was a huge asset on the faceoffs for Brighton, which usually retained possession after scoring which allowed it to pile up the goals early.

While the attack was crisp most of the game, Nash said her young defensive did well but that will be one of the biggest areas the team will look to sharpen up as the season goes on.