HERRIMAN — Consider the stage set.
Year 1 of the Dillon Richens era with Davis girls soccer now turns toward the 6A state championship following a 5-0 shutout over No. 2 Mountain Ridge in the semifinals Tuesday at Zions Bank Stadium.
The No. 3 seed Darts (17-3) will meet No. 1 seed Lone Peak on Friday afternoon to determine the 6A crown. The unbeaten Knights (19-0) cruised past No. 4 Syracuse 3-0 in the first round of the semifinals Tuesday to earn their seat at the table.
Claiming an early 3-0 lead, Davis flew into the second half with similar intensity and never turned back. Now preparing for the final stage, Richens pointed to his team’s dedication to building its success brick by brick to arrive where they are.
“A lot of the credit goes to the program,” Richens said. “We have extraordinary girls, they’re extremely talented and they like to win.”
Davis senior Lucy Potter wasted little time stacking her bricks on Tuesday, finding the net on an assist by Brooklyn Phongsavath less than two minutes into the match.
Fellow senior Simone Packer joined the scoring four minutes later on a free kick and again with 25 minutes left in the half to make it a three-point advantage. Packer said the team’s aggressive start came down to preparation and anticipation of each other’s place on the pitch.
“We were all on the same page,” Packer said. “I think it showed on the field. … Every player has an important role on the team, whether you’re on the bench or on the field, we’ve got to be each other’s biggest supporters and that showed today on the field.”
“When you have the mentality of being a competitor, the environment usually doesn’t change a lot,” Richens added. “Whether you’re playing at your home field, an away field or a lovely stadium like this, they all want to win … that’s who they are.”
Tuesday’s win marks the 10th shutout for senior goalkeeper Lexi Lund, who denied Mountain Ridge for another 40 minutes worth of soccer as the Darts elevated to a 5-0 lead en route to the victory, including a third goal for Packer and a cap from Kate Willard.
Asked about Lund’s influence within the defense, Richens commended his keeper’s “contagious energy” off the field for raising the bar across the unit.
“Lexi is incredible,” Richens said. “This has been her first year really in the sticks. She’s been a silent leader — the kind of person who picks up your stuff without asking. She’s the kind of girl that just does the work and smiles through it.
“She’s got this way of leading quietly and I think the girls have rallied around her because of that contagious energy.”
The state title match brings a major challenge against a Lone Peak team that wore Syracuse’s defense down and required substitutions as early as the first period. Asked about the final exam, Packer feels her team’s more than proved they’re up to the challenge.
“They’re a really great team but we can compete against (anybody),” Packer said. “We’re going to come out, do our best and see what happens.”
Kickoff is set for 2 p.m. Friday at Zions Bank Stadium.
For nearly 40 minutes, No. 4 Syracuse seemed to have an answer for everything unbeaten, top seed Lone Peak threw at them — until they didn’t.
Ivy Harding slipped the match’s first goal past Syracuse goalkeeper Erin Bott late in the first half and the Knights kept their pace for a 3-0 shutout in Tuesday’s semifinal round at Zions Bank Stadium.
The Titans, ending their hard-fought campaign 16-4, stood tall defensively throughout much of the opening period. Bott tallied six saves before halftime, with Syracuse thwarting multiple looks from the corner and the midfield.
However, Syracuse failed to produce a proper attack of its own.
Lone Peak’s back four flushed out two early Syracuse free kicks and an unintentional look at the net by Taylee Hughes bounced clear to the white paint bordering the net until the foot of Lone Peak’s Ada Villarreal caught the stray ball at the final moment.
“They just keep running at you. There’s a reason they’re undefeated,” Syracuse head coach Jason Steiner said. “We didn’t do enough during the regular season to be on the opposite side of this team and to meet them in the finals. … You can only stop them for so long.”
Steiner sensed his defense becoming fatigued toward the end of the first half. With a relentless stream of attacks at the net, the Syracuse coach turned toward his bench for relief, but it backfired.
Lone Peak’s Brooke Hendricks found another leak in the system from roughly 15 yards out, adding another goal to the Knights’ lead less than five minutes back onto the pitch.
Consecutive stops on the Syracuse defensive front enabled a run by Syracuse moments later with Talia Thompson finding Jocee Eddy inside the box for a near-miss off the crossbar. With 22 minutes to play, the Titans picked up a penalty kick thanks to a hard fall taken by Sophie Martin.
Utah commit and 6A’s second-leading scorer Abby Affleck lined up the free shot, but her approach fell out of favor.
“I was trying to go left and at the last second just went up,” Affleck said.
Bott stacked three more saves in the second half but Syracuse’s attack waned down the stretch. The final few minutes saw Lone Peak tack on a third goal, scored just outside the box by Sam Sellers, as the Knights sealed the Titans’ fate.
Asked about her eight fellow seniors, Affleck said the season brought about a sense of optimism she hadn’t quite experienced during her four years as a Titan.
“It’s hard to look past your mistakes, but I think it’s super important,” Affleck said. “I think most of the girls on our team are really good at being able to move on, grow and learn from their experiences.”
Connect with prep sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.
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