Heading into the 4A state tournament, Cottonwood head coach Brylee Harvest was cautiously optimistic. A win over Park City under the lights pushed Cottonwood into safety as far as making the final 24 was concerned. 

On April 26 and back at home on Cottonwood’s natural grass field, the Colts trampled Tooele for two first half goals, gave up one goal in each half to send the game to overtime and pulled away in the extra period with the 3-2 game-winner. 

“We are not at all happy, I’ve previously shared our goal to close the season, we got one game down there’s three more to go. The job is not finished,” Harvest said.  

When asked immediately following the Colts’ huge 3-2 win at Tooele, the Cottonwood’s coach said there was a sigh of relief from both himself and his brother Bryce who is a boys assistant and girls head coach, but not a total sense of achievement. 

“It definitely feels better, but until that final RPI releases we are in flight or fight mode!” exclaimed Harvest after the victory. 

On May 2 just off the state road a ways at Stansbury, the Colts got off the bus sluggish and gave up two first half goals in a 0-2 loss. 

With one game left in the regular season, senior David Galkin scored his first goal all season but Jordan got the Colts for two goals in the first half as Cottonwood ended its regular season with a 1-2 loss. 

Given the No. 23 seed out of 24 teams, the Colts turned their attention and pointed their school bus in the direction of Smithfield, a two-hour drive north of Salt Lake City. 

There, Cottonwood would score a goal in each of the halves—but so would No. 10 Sky View. That 2-2 tie would send the game into overtime where neither team scored for two OT periods, leaving the game’s balance to a penalty kick shootout. 

In the shootout, the Colts made four of their PKs while Sky View only scored one, sending Cottonwood’s sideline into a frenzy as the Colts celebrated the huge upset on the road. 

In the regulation periods, Craig Stephenson and Parker Evans scored goals for Cottonwood while Evans had the assist on Stephenson’s goal. 

That would move the Colts to another long road trip at Crimson Cliffs, a newer high school located in St. George, and a four-hour drive south. 

Cottonwood [5-11] never fully got acclimated to its surroundings though amid the steep red rock cliffs serving as a sort of setting for a spaghetti Western movie. 

The Colts gave up two first half goals, got one back from Stephenson, but ultimately got played off the pitch in the second half, suffering a difficult 1-5 loss. 

And with that, the Colts’ Cinderella state run would end a long way from home, necessitating a long bus ride and an even longer time to ponder what could’ve been. 

For a Cottonwood side that admittedly lost so many of its key starters from last year’s team that won one more game [the 2022-23 team had a 6-9 record] but lost in the first round of last year’s state tournament, the fact that the 2023-24 team won one more game than the last group did at state had to have been a net positive. 

Either way, for a team that will lose 13 more guys to graduation, it’s clear that a new group will have to emerge from the shadows in the next school year.  λ