Olympus’ Gage Phippen (11) shoots the ball throughout a highschool boys lacrosse recreation at Nook Canyon Excessive College in Draper on April 14, 2023. Ryan Solar, Deseret Information
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Boys lacrosse state titles received’t be handed out for six extra weeks, however on Friday evening Olympus stormed Nook Canyon’s subject and celebrated prefer it received one — and contemplating the historic nature of the win, maybe it’s much more vital.
That is 12 months 3 of lacrosse as a sanctioned sport by the UHSAA, and through that point, Nook Canyon’s boys group has constantly been ranked nationally and it’s by no means misplaced to a Utah group with a 43-0 file previous to Friday evening.
The Titans ended that streak in dominant style. They broke open a tie recreation on the half by scoring 9 straight objectives throughout a stretch of the second half as they pulled away for an emphatic 14-7 victory.
“It truly is an announcement recreation for this program. That is one thing that places us on the map,” stated Olympus coach Nick Merrell.
Olympus’ shot-making throughout that second half was elite, with 5 totally different gamers contributing to the 9-0 spurt over a span of simply 14:34.
Charlie Droitsch led the way in which with 4 objectives for the sport, with Gage Phippen and Ethan Hartsfield including three every after which Cole Cummings and Andrew Clayton including two apiece.
“Lacrosse is a recreation of momentum and a recreation of runs, and we wished to restrict their runs. We knew they’re a adequate group that they’re going to reply they usually’re going to have moments after they’re going to get theirs, however we needed to maintain punching again and go on runs of our personal,” stated Merrell.
An enormous key to Olympus’ second-half surge was the success of faceoff specialist Weston Holtby, who received roughly 70% of the faceoffs.
Merrell gave the junior the sport ball afterward and stated an enormous chunk of the credit score goes to him for securing Olympus so many additional possessions.
Holtby stated the adrenaline was flowing for every of these faceoffs after his teammates saved changing them into extra objectives.
Olympus defender Gray Peterson had a terrific view to look at his teammates work their magic all through the second half.
“Our whole group is predicated off sharing the ball, shifting it round, getting objectives off everybody and never only one participant, and I believe that’s what set us other than Nook Canyon,” stated Peterson.
Olympus got here into the sport with an ideal 7-0 file, however Friday’s recreation was by far its hardest check of the season. Merrell stated his gamers had the proper mindset heading into the sport.
“These guys are so mentally powerful. They haven’t actually been challenged an excessive amount of up to now, however they got here in and wished this recreation actually badly, and we put so much time into movie in watching Nook, and that helped us so much,” stated Merrell.
Olympus’ coach believes many Nook Canyon opponents have a defeated angle earlier than the sport even begins, because the Chargers are recognized for burying opponents early.
Certain sufficient, on Friday it received the opening faceoff and got here proper down subject and scored on a Kisen Muramoto aim only one minute into the sport.
Olympus had the proper response, scoring the subsequent three objectives for the 3-1 lead after the primary quarter.
“We had a very nice recreation plan coming into this, and we received out right here and we had the main focus and locked in,” stated Holtby.
Nook Canyon outscored Olympus 4-2 within the second quarter on a pair of objectives by Blake Franckowiak and Jacob Osborn because the groups headed into the locker room stage 5-5.
Merrell stated Nook Canyon put a number of brief sticks on Olympus’ assault gamers to remove its energy within the midfield, and it took his group some time to regulate and uncover alternative routes of discovering success.
Identical to it did within the first half, Nook Canyon opened the scoring within the second half as Franckowiak scored on the 9:41 mark giving his group a 6-5 lead.
Cummings answered again a minute later tying the sport 6-6, after which Olympus then went forward for good with 4:28 left within the third on a aim by Hartsfield.
His group tacked on two extra objectives by the top of the quarter for the 9-6 lead.
Within the fourth quarter, as a substitute of Nook Canyon chipping away on the lead, it swelled rapidly the opposite approach with the Titans scoring 4 objectives in opening three minutes.
From there they put issues on cruise management for the assertion victory.