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SANDY — Five years ago, Syracuse High's boys soccer team finished 3-12 and winless in an otherwise competitive Region 1 that made them, essentially, a laughingstock under first-year head coach Taylor Allen.
Five years later, the Titans were 8-7 in the regular season, the fourth-best team in the region and with a No. 12 seed in the state playoffs that gave them arguably the most difficult path to a championship.
Who's laughing now, Titans?
Easton Cragun and Ryker Smith each scored a goal less than two minutes apart, and Syracuse blanked Skyridge 2-0 to win its first 6A state title in program history on Thursday at America First Field.
"They didn't think we would do it," Smith said after the team's first-ever championship appearance, "and the Cinderella story is over.
"We came in as the lower seed, wearing white every day," he added. "But in the end, we came out on top. We put the most work in, the effort, and we got down dirty and did the work we needed to. We finished it."
The Titans didn't start the season looking like title contenders. A 3-1 start fizzled fast, and Syracuse finished a 6-6 team after region play. If no one took the Titans (13-7) seriously in the playoffs, few would have blamed them.
But the team that had never made it past the state semifinals had heart.
"We knew we could hang with any team in the state," said Allen, who improved to 44-30 as a head coach in his final year before accepting an administrative job. "We felt we could beat any team in the state. Playing in Region 1 and facing Davis, Fremont and Farmington really preps us for a run like this, and these guys really do believe they can beat anyone.
"It's the miracle of the Syracuse Titans, the 12 seed. I couldn't ask for a better way to end my career."
The two teams that had combined for 17 goals in the playoffs — including four from Syracuse in a 4-1 win over previously unbeaten Lone Peak in Monday's semifinals — played to a scoreless draw through 40 minutes.
But Cragun scored in the 44th minute, almost immediately following a half-hour delay for lightning, and Ryker Smith doubled the advantage less than a minute later to give the Titans a 2-0 advantage.
Syracuse went to the locker room while a storm cell surged across Sandy, and they did "anything but talk about soccer," Allen said. They relaxed. They ate snacks. They played a game where they passed a soccer ball around the team using only their heads.
"It was the perfect restart," the coach added. "And we came out firing."
Ryken Hamblin and Jack Cook, who had a hat trick in Tuesday's semifinal upset of top-rated Lone Peak, each had an assist, and Ty Richardson earned the shutout — though he'll be sending thank-you notes until Memorial Day to Cooper Eddy for a goal-line clearance in the final minute to preserve the clean sheet.
Five years after Allen inherited a three-win team that had never made it past the state semifinals, the Titans sent their seniors out as champions.
Five years ago, those same seniors who lifted the championship trophy high over their heads in front of a community-backed crowd at America First Field reported to a team camp after that 3-12 campaign as freshmen — all 92 pounds of him, in Cook's case — and told their new coach, "We're not here to lose."
His response? "Good, because I hate losing."
"They're just unified," Allen said. "They believe in themselves, they believe in each other. And there's a point where a team has to stop caring about individual accolades and just play for the team. Last year, we probably played for accolades. This year, they thought, 'who gives a damn? Let's go win a title.'
"These are a lot of ordinary kids doing pretty extraordinary things."
