High school girls soccer: Lone Peak blanks Davis to cap remarkable turnaround this season with 6A title

It’s not how you start, but how you finish. That analogy came to define Lone Peak’s 2026 season.

With a slew of new starters and contributors this season, Lone Peak got off to a rocky 1-3 start that had many wondering, ‘What’s going on with Lone Peak?’

Internally, though, the Knights weren’t panicking. They believed the pieces were there — they were just young and inexperienced, and once they adjusted the results would soon follow.

Indeed they did — 17 of them in fact.

Top-seed Lone Peak put an exclamation mark on that remarkable turnaround during Friday’s 6A state championship, cruising to the 3-0 win over No. 2 Davis for its 17th straight victory to end the season.

Lone Peak scored once in the first half and then tacked on two more in the second half to secure the fourth state championship in school history.

“We graduated such a strong class last year and then we returned such a small senior class. We had a lot of holes that we needed to fill, and I think it just took us a few games to realize which players could fill ‘em, what formation we wanted to play and if we had younger players that could step up,” said Lone Peak coach Shantel Jolley. “It took us a little bit, but the girls just trusted us.”

Jolley has been on the sideline for all four of those state championships, but there was certainly a different feel to this year’s squad.

“The two we won back to back (in 2023 and 2024) we were just loaded. It was just my job to make sure I didn’t get in their way because they were so talented,” said Jolley. “But for this group to not quite have that firepower, it was so much fun to see them grow from where we started to now.”

During its 17-game winning streak to end the season, Lone Peak notched nine shutouts, including clean sheets in the quarterfinals, semifinals and Friday’s championship.

“I don’t think they get the credit they deserve. Especially this year, we didn’t quite have as many shutouts as we wanted, but they were determined to show that we have a strong back line,” said Jolley.

Sophomore midfielder Katherine Mason opened the scoring against Davis in the 22nd minute as she whipped a shot over the keeper from roughly 30 yards out for the 1-0 lead. It was her sixth goal of the season.

Lone Peak maintained the 1-0 advantage until halftime in what was unfolding as a very even match between the top two seeds in 6A.

Early in the second half, both squads created some decent chances, but it was Lone Peak that finally broke through in the 59th minute.

It started with Sadie Stratton dribbling around a Davis center back in the midfield and continuing her run all the way into the box. She unspooled a driven shot that forced Davis’ keeper into a diving save, but Kami McMurtrey was right there to pounce on the rebound for the 2-0 lead.

The freshman McMurtrey was one of those late bloomers for Lone Peak as she finished with four goals this season, all in the past month and one each in the semifinals and final.

“It’s been so amazing to have such a young team because it’s just so fun, we all love each other so much. There’s so much energy. … It’s a team that plays well together. It’s not just a team that has the best players on it. It’s a team that plays well together, and I think that is all the difference,” said Stratton.

The senior Stratton wrapped up the scoring in the 73rd minute to cap the dream season after a shaky start.

“I think that was so good for us, just to have that moment. It really humbled us, and I think it really played into the season. We had so many doubts this season with other teams, other people, but we really just fought through and showed them who we really are,” said Stratton. “We’re just such a good team that plays so well together. We have so much love on this team and it just really shows.”

Stratton said that switching from a 4-3-3 formation to a 4-4-2 diamond formation after four games played a big part in the turnaround as well.

“We played that game, and ever since then, we haven’t lost a game. So it was amazing,” said Stratton.