Last season the Mountain Ridge Sentinels were dethroaned as region champions for the first time since girls lacrosse became a sanctioned sport in 2020. The Sentinels not only lost their Region 2 title, but they did so with two losses in the regular season to the Riverton Silverwolves.
Riverton and Mountain Ridge have built a bit of a rivalry, especially as the Sentinels got revenge in last year’s semifinal where they eliminated Riverton en route to a 6A championship appearance.
On Tuesday, the two rivals faced off for thier first meeting this season and Mountain Ridge further solidified its chances at reclaiming the region throne with a convincing 10-5 road win over Riverton. Both Riverton and Mountain Ridge held a 3-0 region record before Tuesday and the Sentinels made sure it was the last remaining undefeated team in Region 2.
“We’ve been preparing a lot for this day,” said Mountain Ridge head coach Angie Brescia. “Last year, losing twice to them in the regular season was hard. We’ve been undefeated region champs for a while and they took that from us and so we came back with a hunger to take our title back.”
Mountain Ridge’s ability to defend and extend its own possessions was a large factor in its victory. The Sentinels held the Silverwolves to just five goals, which ties thier second fewest goals in a game this season.
Brescia said a change from a zone defense to man defense has been a significant change this season but a return to form with the zone defense was successful for the Sentinels on Tuesday.
“It’s actually been funny because we’ve played zone almost the entire time I’ve been at Mountain Ridge,” said Brescia of the defense. “This year we’ve played the most man but we knew we had to lock in with our zone because Riverton is tough and I think that that’s our strongest defense.
“We’ve been just been really grinding on the defensive end and taking our time to fine tune all of the things. They’ve been very receptive and they’re just hungry for the ball and I think that gave us the biggest advantage out there.”
The Sentinels had a strong 6-3 lead at halftime and continued its defensive scheme into the second half and only allowed two Silverwolf goals. Despite having a large senior presence, the Mountain Ridge offense was led by freshman Lucy Rigby.
Rigby has been a strong offensive option this season for the Sentinels and she has recorded 40 goals this season, including four in Tuesday’s win. Rigby’s goals got the Mountain Ridge offense started as all four came in the first half.
Karlee Farnsworth and Taya Chalk also scored three and two goals respectively for the Sentinels.
“I think going into today we were just super hyped and ready to play and ready to go,” Rigby said. “We just brought that energy and I’m glad we performed the way we did. In practice we worked on holding onto the ball and being patient. We know that we need to be confident in ourselves and our defense really did show up.”
The Sentinels move to a perfect 4-0 in Region 2 and can clinch another unbeaten Region 2 title with a win over Copper Hills on Thursday.