Here’s a recap of the 6A boys lacrosse semifinals held at Westminster University on Wednesday, with Corner Canyon and Skyridge advancing to Saturday’s championship.
Corner Canyon 22, Mountain Ridge 3
It should come as no surprise that No. 1 Corner Canyon dominated its semifinal with No. 4 Mountain Ridge.
The Chargers have never lost a postseason game, and they are the five-time defending champions. Corner Canyon sure looked the part in its 22-3 semifinal rout of Mountain Ridge.
The win couldn’t have started much more perfectly for the Chargers. They dominated both faceoffs and possession, and they capitalized on them, too, with eight goals.
“We’ve been working on this all year, and we’re rounding into shape here,” said Corner Canyon head coach Jeff King. “Being able to have possessions is really the name of the game for us. We like to play fast, but at the same time, when you have possessions too, that makes a difference.”
Often in lacrosse, offense is the best defense. That showed as Mountain Ridge was held to just three total goals.
But even when the Sentinels got into their offense, it was usually short-lived, especially in the first half. Corner Canyon kept up a pesky defense and earned a 14-1 halftime lead.
“I feel like our pressure on defense lets us continue to get the ball back to our offensive end,” King said. “The attack did a really nice job facilitating and moving the ball. We had cutters that were open, and they did a nice job just feeding the ball.”
The lead offensive engines for the Chargers were Kampton Dutton and Pierson DeGracie. The two scored six goals each, combining for 12 of Corner Canyon’s 22 goals.
Ashton Brown helped set them up and ended the semifinal with five assists.
“I think together they’re pretty deadly,” King said. “It’s hard for teams because who do you cover? Which one do you take out of the game? If we can manage to keep that going. We’ll have success down the road.”
With the win, Corner Canyon earned a chance to win its sixth-straight state championship.
Skyridge 14, Farmington 10
Last year’s semifinal loss to Davis lived in Skyridge’s mind all year. It was the Falcons’ first-ever semifinal appearance and came into the game with a perfect 19-0 record.
The Darts pushed the game to overtime and sent Skyridge home in an 11-10 win.
So, when Skyridge had another shot at the championship this year, it wasn’t going to let it go. The Falcons led the entire way and beat Farmington 14-10.
Skyridge will play in its first-ever state championship against Region 3 rival Corner Canyon.
“It’s nice to finally get here with a relatively new program, but we were on this field last year in a one-point overtime loss that didn’t go our way,” said Skyridge head coach Bart Butterfield. “To come back in and put a statement game down, going into a championship is great.”
The Falcons started strong. They won three consecutive faceoffs and converted for a 3-0 lead, which snowballed into a 5-2 lead after the first quarter.
Skyridge was comfortably getting into its offense, which likes to keep possession and work it around for a clean shot at the goal.
However, Farmington got Skyridge uncomfortable in the second quarter by getting into transition.
Cole Smith was the most common recipient for the Phoenix. Smith scored two goals in the second quarter to help bring the game within 7-6 at halftime.
So, the conversation at halftime for Skyridge was figuring out how to not only slow Farmington down, but also hold onto its lengthy possessions.
“A lot of their points came in transition,” Butterfield said. “So, what we really were focused on was adapting to what they were doing in transition, making sure that we slowed that down.
“We realized pretty quickly that if we’re ahead and they’re not going to make us push pace, then we’re not going to push pace. We’ll probably keep playing at that pace as long as it works in our advantage.”
Dominic Weaver led the way for Skyridge with four goals, while Dylan Forsgren added three. Lots of Falcons got involved with the offense, and seven players ended the game with at least one goal.
“Offensively, we try and let these guys be as creative as they can within a system, and we give them a couple rules,” Butterfield said. “If we’re really trying to push pace, we can do it within this offense. If we’re really trying to protect a lead or gas a defense, like we were doing today, we can just kind of poke around the periphery and make some relatively safe dodges until we do get guys that eventually will fall asleep or get tired and then we can take advantage of it.”