Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Snow Canyon won its first 4A girls soccer title since 2018, beating Ridgeline.
- Tori Martin's crucial saves in the penalty shootout secured the 5-4 victory.
- Lottie Smith scored twice, leading Snow Canyon to a 2-1 halftime lead.
SANDY — Tori Martin knew she only needed one.
The Snow Canyon senior goalkeeper had so much confidence in her team during a penalty shootout — and why shouldn't she? — that she knew she only needed one save to clinch the Warriors' third state title in program history.
Done, and done.
Lottie Smith scored a pair of first-half goals, and Martin saved what she needed during a shootout to help Snow Canyon to its first 4A girls soccer title since 2018 on penalty kicks 5-4 Friday afternoon at America First Field.
"If they miss one or I save one, I know I can get the job done," said Martin, who improved to 4-for-4 in penalty shootouts in her fourth year with the program. That includes a shootout victory over Region 9 rival Desert Hills in Monday's 4A semifinal at Utah Tech.
Smith also converted a penalty for the Warriors (18-2), who won their first championship since her older sister, Whitley, won a championship on the same field seven years ago.
Ava Wong, Scarlet Losee, Veronica Weston and Kenzlie Stuart also converted from the spot for Snow Canyon, which improved to 10-0 in games decided by extra time or penalty kicks over the past four years.
"I think experience matters the most in those moments," Snow Canyon coach Connor Brown said. "We have three girls who played in the state championship as freshmen three years ago, too. We always say in overtime, we don't lose in overtime; I wasn't going to change it for a big event.
"Instilling that confidence meant we could be resilient, we could keep pushing, and we felt good about it."
Once Martin did her part with one save — she also saved a second penalty, but conceded after a redo when the assistant referee marked her off her line early — Smith had all the confidence in the world.
"I'm so proud of my team; we all worked so hard to get here," said Brown, who has committed to play soccer at Southern Virginia.
Smith registered a first-half brace, including her 25th goal of the year in the 29th minute to help the Warriors to a 2-1 halftime lead.
The senior forward found the back of the net from nearly the same spot on the right side of the penalty box, first opening the scoring after Losee set her up in the 13th minute before pulling back another after Melanie Smith equalized on a header from Dannalee Walton's corner kick.
"My team did a great job of finding me with the ball, and I did what I knew I had to do as a striker: get two goals to help my team," Smith said, before acknowledging Ridgeline made it "harder" in the second half while playing a diamond around the 59 career goal-scorer.
"I was like, fine," she added. "Give us the PKs. We'll do that then. And we did."
Then, Ridgeline came back.
Lily Hunsaker equalized after Keagan Grange's 45th-minute free kick from just outside the box was saved.
Sierra Dean gave the top-seeded Riverhawks (17-4) a 3-2 lead in the 51st minute, finishing a well-weighted through ball from Izzy Baer to give Ridgeline its first lead of the match.
But the Warriors equalized just after the hour mark, when Weston's free kick glanced off a Snow Canyon defender for an own goal that set up extra time.
"We told them, Tori's going to do her job; your job is to put the ball on frame," Brown said. "You put the ball on frame, you execute, and Tori will take care of us.
"We put it in our hands, we trusted her — and she made it happen."
