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South Jordan Journal

Bingham girls lacrosse picks up eight wins in final year as club

Jul 08, 2019 02:55PM ● By Josh Mc Fadden

Bingham’s Lindsay Miller (No. 14 in dark blue) tries to evade a defender in a game this past season. (Photo by Marc Gibson)

By Josh McFadden | [email protected]

This time next year, Bingham girls lacrosse players could be reflecting on their first season playing the full-fledged sanctioned sport. As for this year, the Miners had plenty to be pleased about.

Bingham finished the 2019 season with an 8-5 record, an improvement from the 7-6 mark the team posted in 2018. The Miners had a bit of a slow start to the year, losing three of their first four contests, but bounced back to win seven of their final eight regular season outings. 

The Miners showed they could win both high-scoring games and grind out defensive battles. In six victories, Bingham tallied at least 12 goals. The Miners also prevailed by lower, close scores of 6-4 (over Alta on April 11) and 9-8 (over Lone Peak on the final game of the regular season May 3). 

Unfortunately, it was that same Lone Peak team that got the better of Bingham in the state tournament just four days after the regular season finale. This time around, the Miners surrendered 13 goals in a six-point loss to the Knights to end the season. 

A host of players made valuable contributions for Bingham. Senior Ellie Scharman paced the team in goals with 19. She also added six assists for 25 total points. Rachel Powell, a junior, was second in goals scored with 17, while junior Abby Peterson chipped in 14 goals. Sophomore Olivia Gilbert had 13 shots on goal and connected on 11 of them. Junior Abigail Degn had 10 goals and a team-high 10 assists. 

The defense stepped up during key moments as well.

Bingham allowed fewer than nine goals eight times on the year. The best showing was against Roy on April 9 when the Miners permitted just one goal in a 12-point win. They also gave up only two goals on four separate outings, each of which was a double-digit victory.

Degn and senior Allison Young caused 12 turnovers. Seniors Paige Barney and Beverly Jones split time at the goalie position. Jones had 50 saves, while Barney had 47. Barney stopped 55% of the shots on goal, and Jones saved 49%. Sophomore Molly Laukka, who is a good candidate to take over the spot full time next season, helped out in three games in the net as well. 

With the Utah High School Activities Association sanctioning lacrosse next year, Bingham, like all other schools, will now have access to funding. For example, the school district will provide financial help for transportation and equipment, as this has been up to the individual teams previously. The Miners will have a maximum of 16 regular season games next year. 

Some important pieces to the squad will be back in 2020 as the Miners look to continue improving.