High school girls lacrosse: Maggie Bird’s OT winner lifts Riverton over top-seed Skyridge in 6A championship

As the clock ticked under 45 seconds in overtime of Thursday’s 6A state championship, Riverton was licking its chops with possession behind the goal.

As Riverton’s Maggie Bird said, “Me and Paisley (Young) are like, ‘Get us behind goal and we’ll always score.’”

Bird said the two seniors have so many set plays behind goal, they feel unstoppable. So as the clock ticked down, Bird followed Young behind goal and then spun around in front of net to bury the game-winner with 34 seconds left as the No. 2 Silverwolves beat No. 1 Skyridge 8-7 to win their first state championship in school history.

“I was like, ‘Let’s just do one of our plays,’ and so we did, and it was wide open,” said Bird, a Grand Valley State signee who finished with three goals.

Riverton trailed 6-3 at the half, but it found a way to lock things down defensively the rest of the way in becoming the fifth different 6A state champ in five years.

“I just think that we came in knowing we were going to win. And it’s like when you have a team that works so well together, we just knew we had to trust each other. We were just like, ‘We just have to get the ball back on defense, bring it to attack, take our time,” said Bird. “We knew we could score, and if we just took a breath and let ourselves do it, then we did.”

The biggest question coming into the game was how well Riverton could slow a Skyridge attack that averaged 20 goals this season.

In the semifinals two days earlier, the Falcons scored 23 goals in a win over Lone Peak.

It took a lot of commitment, but coach Hannah Kelleher said holding Skyridge to a season-low seven goals was all about pressuring, and “go give it your all.”

“In your zone, you’re going to have those cutting holes. You’re going to kind of have the low options there, but if you can pressure them, get in their hands, they might be open, but they aren’t able to see it, they aren’t able to hit that. So we told the defense we just have to pressure them,’ said Kelleher.

Riverton had so-so success with that pressure early on.

Geneva Barfuss scored twice in the first quarter, with Tessa Jamison and Sophia Fife adding goals as well for Skyridge which jumped out to a 4-3 lead.

In the second quarter, Skyridge got great goaltending from Lani Fiefia and then goals by Ellie Palmer and Jamison to stretch the lead to 6-3 by halftime.

There was no panic at the half by Riverton according to Bird.

Riverton came out quick in the third, with Bird and Suli Tafisi scoring quickly to cut the lead to 6-5. Even after Fife scored for Skyridge at the 5:26 mark to extend the lead to 7-5, the Silverwolves pulled a goal back by the end of the quarter by Young and only trailed 7-6 heading into the fourth.

Riverton kept up its intense pressure in the fourth quarter, ultimately holding Skyridge standout scorer Summer Buechner scoreless for the game, even though she added four assists.

The Silverwolves finally broke through and tied the game at 7-7 with 5:31 remaining as Bird scored on an assist from Cara Erramouspe.

Riverton goalie Isabel Simonen came up with two key saves in the fourth quarter, finishing with six, to keep it a one-goal game until Bird’s tying goal.

Riverton had a great chance to try and take the lead late in the fourth quarter on a free position opportunity, but Skyridge’s defense swallowed Tafisi up before she could get a shot off.

Skyridge got a late golden opportunity as well with a Buechner earning a free position opportunity with 10 seconds remaining. She was unable to get a shot off amid the swarming pressure from Riverton.

Heading into overtime, Bird said she felt calm and relaxed despite the obvious stressful situation.

“I’ve just been telling myself all day, ‘Stay calm. This is just another game.’ So I was actually pretty calm myself. I just knew that we just had to get the ball to our side and I knew that once we did that, we’d be able to score,” said Bird.

Riverton beat Mountain Ridge by one goal in a tense semifinal on Tuesday, and Bird and her teammates believe that stressful game helped ease tensions in the championship.

“I just knew that it was going to be a tight one, and it’s like we’ve handled it and they haven’t. So I knew that we’d be better prepared for it,” said Bird.

As her players celebrated with family and friends afterward, coach Kelleher reflected on the hard work it took to get to that point.

“They’ve worked so hard for it. Truthfully like every single day we showed up, we put in the work. And you know, we had to go through Mountain Ridge. I think they’re just so proud of themselves, as they should be. It’s a good feeling,” said Kelleher.