After trailing reigning champion Wayzata in the first half of Friday’s Class 3A state title game, Stillwater’s 17 seniors wouldn’t let their last high school soccer game end in a loss.

“This was our last to chance to win something that matters, together,” senior goalkeeper Reese Elzen said.

The No. 2-seeded Ponies rallied to beat No. 1 Wayzata 3-2 and win their program’s fourth state title.

As freshmen, most of those seniors — the largest group of seniors head coach Mike Huber has ever seen — lost in the state semifinals, the program’s last appearance at state.

Ever since, their coaches repeatedly showed them film from when the Ponies rallied from two goals down to beat Edina in the state playoffs en route to winning 2021’s state title.

“This is what it takes,” Huber would tell them.

On Friday, the Ponies had what it took.

After trailing 2-0 in the game’s first half-hour, a pair of goals from Stillwater senior forward Alayna Muths tied the match with 30 minutes to play. Then, with 14 minutes remaining, senior forward Rylee Lawrence showed why she was a Ms. Soccer finalist and All-Minnesota honoree.

At the edge of the 18-yard box, the North Dakota commit lifted a shot into the far left corner of the net to score the game winner for the Ponies (19-1-1).

“It’s unreal,” Lawrence said. “Our team was working so hard to be able to put it in. … We [seniors] all were really, really motivated, which made the five underclassmen extra motivated with us.”

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Wayzata (17-1-2) hadn’t led early in either of its prior tournament games, but fewer than 10 minutes into Friday’s match, All-Minnesota forward Lauren Craig served a pass into the box for unmarked Ava Molde, whose shot slipped past Elzen, a Wisconsin commit.

Molde and Craig would combine again for Wayzata, which wrangled away Stillwater’s early momentum. This time, it was Molde dashing up the left touchline and centering the ball to Craig, who calmly slotted in a shot for her team-high 26th goal of the season.

“We weren’t going to change the way we play,” Huber said. “We just told them we needed to get in behind their back line a little bit more and put shots on their net.”

Stillwater clawed one back before halftime, three minutes after Wayzata’s second goal. Muths received a throw-in with her back to goal, and the Illinois-Chicago commit’s nice first touch set herself up to turn and curl in a volley.

With a half-hour left in the game, Muths tapped in a bouncing ball that popped through the Wayzata box off another throw-in.

“Between Rylee and Jenna [Kurth] and Alayna and our midfielders, the goals kind of come everywhere. … Teams can’t key in on one player,” Huber said.

The Stillwater defense, an impressive three-player back line that recorded 11 shutouts this season, had to wait out the final minutes. Injuries forced the Ponies to switch to a three-back early in the season in what Huber thought would be a one-game trial. The formation stuck.

“It was definitely a little bit uncomfortable for us at first … because everybody is marking one,” said senior and All-Minnesota defender Savannah Backberg. “We all worked hard for each other, like no one left each other alone.”

Elzen, diving to her left, tipped another Craig shot wide with 12 minutes left to keep Stillwater ahead. The keeper notched her fifth assist of the fall on Lawrence’s game winner after she launched a massive drop kick three quarters of the field’s length.

Wayzata was playing in its third consecutive title game with a crew of 11 sophomores, many of whom played major minutes for the Trojans. Wayzata entered the state tournament undefeated and ranked ninth in the national United Soccer Coaches Association poll.

Stillwater is the first team besides Edina to beat Wayzata in its past 80 games, Trojans head coach Tony Peszneker said.

“I’ve watched a lot of finals over the years, and honestly, I thought this was probably one of the best finals that I’ve seen in a while,” Huber said. “I’ve got another video I can use for the next five years.”

Mahtomedi beats Blake for 2A title

Normally, goalkeepers are the first to receive their state championship medals, typically wearing No. 0 or 1 on a title-winning soccer team buzzing with excitement, lined up in numerical order.

But after No. 1-seeded Mahtomedi edged No. 2 Blake 1-0 in Friday’s Class 2A state title game, Zephyrs senior keeper Harlow Berger was the last to get her gold, wearing No. 43 in honor of her late father, who wore it playing basketball.

As Berger had her named called, the Zephyrs fans gave their 6-foot-3 netminder the afternoon’s loudest cheer of all, and well-deserved after she made a dozen saves. In a game that Blake (16-1-4) dominated in possession and chances at goal, the All-Minnesota St. Thomas commit was a “game-changer,” head coach David Wald said.

“We don’t do this this year with that many young kids on the field without them knowing that they have Harlow behind them, backing them up,” said Wald, whose team has 11 shutouts in its past 13 games.

Berger had to dive low, parry over high chances and step up to stifle close-range shots as Blake came out on the front foot, led in attacking by junior Gophers commit Livi Abboud-Young, who scored 34 goals this season.

Even Wald lost track of the number of saves Berger made to help the Zephyrs (17-2-2) defend last year’s state title, except for the important distinction: “A lot. Enough.”

With 15 minutes left in the match, the Zephyrs forced a midfield turnover that found senior midfielder Kennadee Cummins, who slipped a pass to junior forward Elise Aflakpi, with her back to the goal at the edge of Blake’s 18-yard box.

Turning around her mark, Aflakpi’s right-footed shot, poked with her toe between two Blake defenders, bounced off the left goalpost, then the right, and back out. Blake keeper Reese Aafedt pounced on the rebound, but the shot was eventually ruled a goal.

“I was ready to keep going, and then when I heard that whistle, it was such a feeling of relief,” Aflakpi said.

The game-winner from Aflakpi — who also scored the winner in Mahtomedi’s 2-1 semifinal win over Mankato East — came in a match in which the Zephyrs’ chances were hard-earned while the young, talented Blake team sent an onslaught of corner kicks and shots.

The Zephyrs fielded a team younger than the squads that have typically helped the program to state-record 12 titles. They had graduated all of their starting defenders, calling on such players as senior Neven Leopold and freshman Olivia Boberg to step up.

They also had to work around several injuries. Last year’s leading scorer, Allie Rippentropp, played for the first time this fall in the Zephyrs’ semifinal win over Mankato East after missing time because of a broken foot.

“If you had asked me at the beginning of the season if we’d be here, I would have said, ‘No way,’ ” Wald said, “… which is completely different than last year.”

Berger split time last year with senior goalkeeper Jacque Worden, a North Dakota State commit, but Worden was out with an injury picked up in the spring, during the Zephyrs’ state championship flag football season. Instead, Worden spent time working with Berger during practice, coaching her through drills, her “sister” in net, said Wald.

Berger finished the game holding her right shoulder, which had popped out and back in on a dive with about seven minutes left in the match. She put on an arm sling before the medal ceremony.

She kicks for the Mahtomedi football team, too, and there’s a playoff game Friday night against Cretin-Derham Hall. She wasn’t sure she could still play, ice strapped to her shoulder. But, guaranteed, she’s a state champion.

“That’s probably my busiest game all year,” Berger said. “I was coming into this knowing that that was going to be the case, and so I just put myself on the line for my team.”

Providence Academy defeats Watertown-Mayer in 1A

After Mahtomedi defended its Class 2A state title earlier in the afternoon, Class 1A’s No. 1-seeded Providence Academy wouldn’t let the Zephyrs have all the fun.

The Lions beat No. 2 Watertown-Mayer 2-1 to go back-to-back, stacking the trophy case with the program’s first two state titles in consecutive years. Sisters Beckett and Maddyn Greenway, Minnesota’s all-time leading scorer, teamed up for Providence (18-3-1), Beckett assisting on two Maddyn goals.

“We don’t really practice those connections that we have. I just think it’s kind of the sister bond that you have,” Maddyn said. “We always know where each other is going to be.”

Watertown-Mayer (20-2-0) pulled a page out of the typical playbook of Providence Academy’s high-octane offense and scored early. The Royals, looking for their first state title on their first trip to the tournament, netted the game-opening goal fewer than three minutes into the match on a well-executed set play.

Sophomore midfielder Ainsley Blair popped out to the right wing to combine on a short corner kick with senior midfielder and Minnesota State Moorhead commit Ellie Lommel. While junior forward Kailey Paschke set a screen on Providence keeper Audrey Steeves, Blair’s shot curled in.

“ ‘Composed’ is not the word I would use,” Providence senior defender Elizabeth Hughes said when asked about the Lions’ reaction to trailing early.

But the team had watched Stillwater come back against Wayzata earlier that day and knew “there’s a lot of time left,” Hughes said. “Forget about what just happened, just [focus on the] next play.”

Blair, typically the Royals’ main attacker with a team-high 29 goals this season, was given a more defensive task Friday: to match up with Maddyn Greenway and keep her in check.

“These girls are willing to do whatever it takes every single time,” Watertown-Mayer head coach Dan Menk said. “We made a very conscious decision on how we’re going to defend Maddyn tonight. And I think for the most part, it was relatively effective. … It’s just that you get those couple of moments where she breaks through, and she’s just so incredibly dangerous.”

“She was a really good athlete, like there’s not a lot of people that I’ve had that were kind of on me at every point of my dribbling,” Maddyn Greenway said of Blair.

But you can only contain one of the state’s most prolific offenses for so long — until nine minutes before halftime, to be exact.

Freshman midfielder Beckett Greenway slotted a pass from the center circle to the edge of the Royals’ 18-yard box. Her older sister cut through the Watertown-Mayer back line to receive the pass in stride, took a touch to beat Watertown-Mayer keeper (and semifinal penalty shootout hero) Lauren Grimm and found the back of the net.

Maddyn’s 62nd goal of the season tied, and her next would break, the Minnesota single-season scoring record set last year by St. Cloud Tech’s Molly Burkstrand.

The sisters — who also help power Providence’s basketball team, with which Maddyn, a Kentucky commit, has won four state titles — connected again for the winning goal. Off Beckett’s pass, Maddyn beat two defenders to slot a low shot past Grimm with 20 minutes to play.

The Lions defense, anchored by senior Carthage College commit Ceci Carron and Hughes, limited most of Watertown-Mayer’s chances for the second half as the Royals pressed for an equalizer.

Junior Steeves was able to clean up anything that made it through the Providence back line, including snagging the Royals’ final chance out of the air with two minutes to play.

“There’s something that switches,” Carron said of the final few minutes, when the Lions changed from a 3-5-2 to a 4-3-3 to defend their lead. “They come in 100 times harder. We have to come 100 times harder back.”

Both teams were appearing in the state title game in their first season under new head coaches: Menk at Watertown-Mayer and former assistant coach Ellen Moran at Providence.

“Being down, I’m just so proud of how we came back,” Lions senior midfielder Anabelle Alber said. “This is honestly one of the best games our team has had. Everyone came to show up.”