No. 3 Mica Mountain advances to the Open Division championship after the Thunderbolts went on the road to defeat No. 2 Catalina Foothills 1-0 Wednesday night. Mica Mountain (18-3) came out of the 4A Conference and Catalina Foothills (21-1-3) is the top-ranked team from the 5A Conference. The top team from the 6A ranks, No. 1 Sunnyside (21-2-2), lost to No. 9 Sunrise Mountain 3-1 in the quarterfinal round and Sunrise Mountain (18-3-3) went on to beat No. 5 Brophy Prep 5-0 in the other semifinal match Wednesday night to set up the championship with Mica Mountain, set for Monday night at Mesa High School.

The Thunderbolts and Falcons went scoreless, with no shots on goal, through 20 minutes but that changed in the 27th when Tate Peele found the back of the net for Mica Mountain. That goal held up through 53 more minutes of play but the Falcons had several opportunities to score, including hitting the bottom of the crossbar with several minutes left to play. The Falcons took 11 shots in the match but Benjamin Weinzinger came up with seven saves to help keep the team off the scoreboard.

Mica Mountain lost to Salpointe 4-2 in the 2024 4A championship match and the Thunderbolts lost in the 4A semifinal round last year. Sunrise Mountain won the 5A state championship last winter after taking runner-up finishes in 2022 and 2024. The Mustangs are playing well above their No. 9 ranking and the Bolts have more than lived up to their high ranking so this should be an exciting championship final.