Bountiful and Judge Memorial hooked up in Division A of the Utah high school boys state lacrosse championships Saturday evening at Granite High School, and the heavily favored Braves did not disappoint, demolishing the Bulldogs 12-6 to successfully defend their title as champions from last year.

At the half, Judge only trailed 3-1, displaying some gritty defense, especially by goalie Luigi Lollini. At the outset of the second half, Judge's Patrick Griffin pushed one in to close the gap to 3-2.

"But we began to wear them down," said Bountiful coach Marty Wescott. "We have great athletes on this team."

The Braves' Christian Taylor, besides scoring the first goal of the game in the first quarter, went berserk in the third quarter. He looked like a man possessed. He took over the match, scoring at the 5:46 mark, the 5:10 mark and the 3:12 mark to virtually put away the game. By the end of the quarter the Braves led 8-2.

Joey Nelson slapped one in just 12 seconds into the quarter and with the score 9-2 the remainder of the game was garbage time.

Taylor described what happened in that third quarter.

"They blocked Mike (Fabrizio), and I tried to get in the right place and my teammates found me," he said.

He added, "My confidence was as high as ever."

He also commented on the Braves defending their title: "Back to back is what we were aiming for."

Outstanding goalie for Judge was Lollini, who blocked countless shots, including several at crucial times in the first half. He blocked a flurry of shots right after the Bulldogs had closed the gap to a single point in the third quarter.

But he finally wore down.

The Braves were strong defensively as well, blocking most of Judge's shots before they reached the goal. And two of the first three Judge goals were scored when Bountiful was a man down.

In the Division B final, Orem ran away from Sky View 15-6.

E-mail: wjewkes@desnews.com