HERRIMAN — Ella Criddle remembers the last time Bear River girls’ lacrosse team lost a competitive match, back on March 17, 2023.
Reflecting on past losses
She was a freshman, playing with the junior varsity team during a mid-March visit to Corner Canyon and a 7-5 loss to the 6A quarterfinalists.
“We lost, but we really tried to work together as a team,” said Criddle, now a senior. “It was a great team. That’s all I remember.”
Bear River coach Jeremy Webb remembers a few more things, like how the Bears were missing four starters in one of only two losses the sixth-year head coach took in his career.
But mostly, he remembers the weather.
“It was cold,” he said. “We had 10 feet of snow all the way around our field.”
“Yeah,” Criddle added. “It was.”
A dominant championship victory
The Bears continued their 78-match winning streak Thursday that now approaches four consecutive years, rolling to a 14-3 win over Provo to clinch a fifth consecutive 4A state championship at Zions Bank Stadium.
Criddle scored five goals in her final high school game before heading to Division III Southern Virginia, Mollie Call added four goals, and Jeanine Webb supplied a goal and four assists as the Bears capped a third straight undefeated season at 21-0.
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“The real success for me is being able to share a part of these girls’ lives, and when they come back and remember it positively,” said Webb, whose teams are 112-2 in his Bear River tenure. “That’s the real success.
“Win or lose, it doesn’t matter; it really doesn’t matter,” he added. “It’s about the culture and what we’ve created together — the coaches, the athletics, the administration. That’s what it’s really about.”
Overcoming an early deficit
Led by two goals from Courtney MacFarlane, the Bulldogs (19-2) pinned down Bear River early, holding the undefeated top seeds to just two goals in the first quarter.
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Trusting the team process
But Criddle scored two during a 4-1 run through the second quarter to lift the Bears to a 6-2 halftime lead, and Bear River never looked back.
“We know how to play, but I think the nerves kind of got to us,” said Criddle, who had a goal and an assist in last year’s 8-6 win over Waterford in the 4A championship. “But we really pulled it together, trusting each other and working as a team.”
Maintaining a winning standard
Criddle added another to help stretch the lead to 11-3 after three quarters, and Webb and Emma Kierstead helped top off the scoring during a fourth-quarter shutout that helped Bear River maintain the standard its set since the second full season of sanctioned lacrosse among Utah high schools.
“Coach Webb really pushes us to know what we want, and we really work hard,” Criddle said. “I give it to him to know what we need to do.”
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