“12 seconds left of the game, Ireland does what she normally does,” Olivia Wade, freshman, said.

Nearing the end of the semi-finals, the Davis team prepared to go into penalty kicks. Team captain Madi Garlock, senior, worried it would be her turn to shoot in PKs with “so much pressure” as “everyone watches you take one kick that should be in the goal.” The game later turned in their favor, as Regyn Youngberg, junior, passed the ball to Ireland Dunn, junior.

“I got the ball and I was like, ‘We don’t have a lot of time left, and we won’t have any more chances,’” Dunn said. “I shot it, hoping it would go in.”

The ball flew into the net, marking the end of the game.

“It felt so good,” Dunn said, “right when the goal went in, to look at my teammates and see how excited we all were to finally get to where we wanted to be.”

This victory sparked a stampede of students rushing out to the field to congratulate the girls with hugs and screams.

“I looked around and everyone was cheering,” Garlock said. “I couldn’t even believe it!”

The team remarks that the win felt dreamlike; this game, however, was only a checkpoint.

“It was surreal to actually be there and know that we were going to Rio Tinto,” Dunn said. “We knew this was our year from the beginning. We wouldn’t stop until we got to the finals and won.”

Garlock, instead of having other captains on the team, spent the season being the only one. Members mentioned lessons she taught them as a team. Wade, for instance, remembers a particular message on the girls’ way to Rio Tinto.

“She always helped us focus on now,” Wade said. “You always want to compete for state championship, but Madi always said we have to take it game by game. You can’t skip ahead; this game is as important as the next game.”

Although Garlock taught to focus on one game at a time, she had a wish to be granted before she graduated.

“In the beginning of the season,” Garlock said, “everyone always says, ‘Let’s take state, let’s take state,’ but this being the senior’s last year, it’s either do or die–you’ll have no other chances.”

The team continued through until they arrived at Rio Tinto, the final mark: whoever won this game would be the state champions. When the game was bound to be over, the Davis Team went into PKs, with Wade as the shooter.

“It’s all silent,” Wade said, “and you’re just sitting there, then the referee blows the whistle, then you think, ‘Alright, it’s my time to shoot!’”

This BYU-scholarship-winning freshman went up before the goal and made the kick to win the state championship. This year marked the team’s next win after their last in 1995.

“Winning state in itself is such a cool thing,” Wade said, “and even if I didn’t take that shot it would mean the world to me.”

In the end, the girls attributed their success to the talents and friendships they made within the team.

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