High school 4A soccer championship: Lakers complete incredible journey

DRAPER — When Jaiden Thornock broke from the pack and burst up the middle to score a first goal as the final seconds ticked away, the most improbable of scenarios finally became a reality.

Bonneville completed its incredible journey from fourth seed to state champion with a thrilling 2-0 victory in the 4A girls soccer championship at Juan Diego High on Saturday afternoon.

"I don't know if it's ever been done," co-head coach Lane Barker said. "For Bonneville, it just couldn't have ended better."

How the Lakers got to this point seemed to come straight from the pages of a script for your typical Hollywood sports movie. Bonneville endured a late-season coaching change and needed to survive a play-in game against Mountain Crest just to qualify for the 4A tournament.

Once they beat the Mustangs, however, nothing could stop them from going where nobody outside the team thought was possible.

"When we beat Mountain Crest for the third time — in that playoff game — we knew we were getting so much better and we knew we could come in and take it," Thornock said.

Bonneville took 1-0 lead when Hayley Bowden put a nice header into the net in the 37th minute. It was a huge moment for Bowden, a senior, who had not scored even once this season before Saturday's championship game.

Seeing her be the one to give Bonneville its first lead whipped the whole Lakers' bench into a frenzy.

"On the bus ride here, she said, 'I'm going to score today,'" Thornock said. "She came in with the mindset of wanting a goal so bad and finally she got one."

Much like it had done in earlier playoff games against Orem and East, Bonneville shadowed Bountiful's primary scoring threats and gave them little room to create or operate.

Still, it was impossible to keep the Braves' Monica Okapal and Felicia Sturgeon from getting to the ball forever. Over the final 20 minutes of the second half, the duo came up with multiple shots on goal. Each time, however, Bonneville junior keeper Britty McGregor came through with a much-needed save.

She delivered a big catch when Sturgeon lobbed a free kick over a three-man defensive wall in the 62nd minute. Then, when Okapal got loose on the break and threaded the ball between three defenders a minute later, she tucked and rolled to stop the shot.

"I couldn't let them go in," McGregor said. "State means so much to me."