Stillwater coach Mike Huber admitted anything less than a state championship this season would’ve been “disappointing.”
Powered by a talented, 17-member senior class that had largely been together for the past several seasons, this was the Ponies’ year.
But Friday’s Class 3A state final wasn’t following the supposed script. A pair of goals for top-seeded Wayzata had the Ponies trailing 2-0 with 10 minutes to play in the first half at U.S. Bank Stadium.
Disappointment was staring Stillwater in the face. But so, too, was Déjà vu.
For weeks now, before every postseason bout, the coaching staff had played footage from the defining moment of the Ponies’ most recent championship run to the current players – the 2021 state semifinal win over Edina.
The message, per Huber: “This is what it takes to win a championship.”
On that day, Stillwater scored the game’s final three goals to rally from a 2-0 deficit against the much-heralded Hornets.
“We had no business winning that game,” Huber joked.
They had no intention of losing this one.
But the Ponies needed something, anything to change the championship’s course. They found it on the left foot of Alayna Muths.
With nine minutes remaining in the half, the senior forward corralled a throw in on the wide edge of the box amid traffic. Muths turned left, found a sliver of space between three Wayzata defenders and ripped a bender that dipped inside the upper-left part of the frame to suddenly cut Stillwater’s deficit in half.
Game on.
“That gave us a little bit more momentum (and belief) that we can stay in this game,” Stillwater senior forward Rylee Lawrence said.
The score stood at 2-1 more than 10 minutes into the second stanza, when opportunity knocked for Muths again. She answered a second time.
A throw in was headed twice by two different Stillwater players into the box. The ball then found its way past Lawrence and a pair of Trojan defenders and leaked to the backside, where Muths stood alone. She beat the goalie near post to tie the game.
Which set the stage for Lawrence, Stillwater’s leading scorer on the season who netted the lone goal in the semis against Eagan.
Ponies goalie Reese Elzen launched a goal kick 60 yards down the field. Lawrence won the ball, spun then darted to her right. She out-raced a couple defenders to the edge of the box, where the senior launched a missile to the upper far corner to put the Ponies (19-1-1) on top for good with 15 minutes to play to win the state title, 3-2.
“It was unreal. I can’t even describe it,” Lawrence said. “Our team was working so hard. So to be able to put it in for everyone else, too, besides myself, was just amazing.”
That was the drive for Stillwater all season. This was always the end goal, and the Ponies were going to push for it together.
“It was like, ‘Hey, let’s work together, be a team, no drama,’” Huber said. “And let’s go out and get it done.”
They did – not just Friday, but every day throughout the fall. Players noted to Huber after the team’s final practice Thursday that he rarely put them through conditioning this season.
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, I guess I didn’t. You must not have (ticked) me off a lot,’” he joked. “The girls were awesome all year.. … They came out every day, worked hard. They deserved to be here.”
What perhaps felt like destiny had to be earned. Especially given the opponent. Friday marked defending-champion Wayzata’s first loss to a program not named Edina since 2022.
“If the loss comes against a team like Stillwater,” Wayzata coach Tony Peszneker said, “then it’s probably well-earned on their part, and something we can probably live with.”
The Trojans (16-1-2) pushed Stillwater to the brink in a classic clash of elite teams. Huber described Friday’s bout as “one of the best finals I’ve seen in awhile.”
“Every championship game should be a game that you want to remember,” Peszneker said.
This one was. Of course, for the players, that was probably always going to be true. Prior to the contest, Ponies assistant coach Dusty Dennis told his players that in 20 years, when they’re back in Stillwater, they’ll drive past the high school and think about this game.
“And now,” senior defender Savannah Backberg said, “we can think about how we won.”
Briefly
Edina beat Maple Grove 1-0 to win the Class 3A boys state title game Friday. Haden Smith scored the game’s lone goal in the 50th minute.
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