Sometime around seven months or so ago, news of the passing of legendary Salpointe head coach Kelly Pierce started making the rounds in the era of social media and cell phones. From one mother and daughter to the next, from one family member to another, from one coach, from one player to all. Disbelief, sadness, anger and confusion, mixed with tears and laughter and love and everything else one could imagine. Through it all, the program called upon a former Lancer and a friend of Pierce’s in Jessica Rushton and Rushton put all that weight on her shoulders and she helped lead the program to another 4A state championship with a victory over top-seeded Crimson Friday night at Mesa High School.

“Just the whole build up to this game, just the whole playoff series. Things were starting to click for us. I think we really peaked at the right time,” Rushton explained.  “The last time we saw this team in January, we won with a 2-0 victory, but we were just barely getting things going, and we were super excited to see them today, knowing that we were peaking at the right time right now, but they obviously improved a lot over that time frame as well so it was just a battle today.”

In the books, some will say the 5-4 outcome in PKs took 100 minutes, with overtime thrown in, to have it all settled on the kicks from the mark but, in reality, it all started months ago when Rushton and Crimson head coach John Roberts gathered their players for the first time.

Crismon. (Andy Morales/AZPreps365)

 

Roberts is a legend in his own right with a state championship to go along with seven runner-up finishes before taking over at Crismon in 2022 when the school started competing at the varsity level. “We opted to play varsity right away because we wanted to compete in 3A and we wanted to get them on the ground. When I moved from Perry, I immediately felt this was my home school - this is my in my backyard,” Roberts explained. “I wanted to be a part of something in my community, and I wanted to grow something big, and I've been blessed to have the opportunity to do so with great kids, and they've blossomed really, really quickly, been fortunate enough to go to the playoffs the last four years, and this run has been incredible. I can't be more proud.”

As Roberts mentioned, Crismon started out as a 3A program in the 2022-2023 school year before moving over to the 4A level last year where the Rattlers finished in the quarterfinal round of the Open Division. This year, Crismon finished with a 21-5-2 record to go along with the top seed in the 4A playoffs and the Rattlers took No. 2 Salpointe (18-6) to the distance.

As one would imagine, Salpointe is a more seasoned program with years of playoff experience but a 13-3 shot advantage did not translate to a win in regulation so the Lancers had to get in done from the mark where anything could happen and senior keeper Ani Jimenez came away with the save of the year to seal the victory.

Tatum Brandau put Crismon up 1-0 and then Sienna Stude tied it up with a kick to the top. Jimenez came away with a stop to give the Lancers an early advantage and Michelle Lopez hit the net for the 2-1 lead. Kaylin Revolt tied it up 2-2 and then Mandy Tran put the Lancers back up 3-2. Keeper Kaiya Smith turned herself around and she connected to tie it up 3-3 but Bri Pickett made it 4-3. Sawyer Lemieux tied it up 4-4 and Emma Cazares hit the clincher for the 5-4 victory.

“We kept telling the girls during each water break we had, or at the half, and then the overtime periods to just keep being patient,” Rushton added. “It's coming. We just have to pressing and keep taking those shots and keep committing numbers forward and it's going to come. Unfortunately, we couldn't finish the game off on a regulation goal but they wanted this moment to be extra special.”

Crismon loses senior Sydney Droen, who leads the team with 35 goals, to graduation. “We have a lot coming back next year but unfortunately, we lose Sydney, who's leading the state in points and all that,” Roberts added. “So we're losing her, but I started four freshmen tonight.”

Salpointe will move to the 5A Conference next year but the Lancers seemed prepared for the competition after playing 6A Perry to the limit in December to go with a 1-0 loss to 6A Xavier in January to go along with a 1-0 loss to 5A Notre Dame Prep in the Open Division. Xavier is playing for the Open Division championship, Perry is playing for the 6A title and Notre Dame is playing for the 5A championship.