Wolverines rally to reclaim girls’ soccer state title
DULUTH — The matchup of the past two champions in the state’s highest class certainly lived up to its billing.
The West Forsyth Wolverines rallied for two second-half goals and stymied Walton’s explosive offense to earn a hard-fought 2-1 win in Thursday’s Class AAAAAA girls’ state championship match at Duluth High School’s Cecil Morris Field.
It was West Forsyth’s fourth title in six years after winning the crown in 2021, 2022 and 2024. Walton was the defending state champion, having beaten Buford here last year.
The game’s momentum flipped in the 43rd minute, when — less than a minute after Walton took a 1-0 lead — the Wolverines equalized on a goal by Megan Rivera.
In the 63rd minute, Carsyn Murray scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal for West Forsyth (21-1) on a left-footed shot that she says she barely remembers taking.
“That was insane… I didn’t even feel myself shooting,” Murray said, as she held tightly to the championship trophy. “I was facing the other direction, and I saw the ball, and I thought, ‘Just take this chance, I’ve got nothing to lose, just take the shot.’ It wasn’t the best shot, but it went in, and it kept us going. I shot it lefty… I’m not a left-footed player. It was crazy.”
“Once Walton scored, honestly, I got a little worried, because they’d been so dominant in that first half,” said West Forsyth head coach Jason Galt. “But I told everyone on the sideline that this reminded me of the 2022 championship game against Mill Creek… the first half, they dominated us, and they were up 1-0 until late in the game when we finally scored and then went to overtime and won the game. This was very reminiscent of that. The fact that we didn’t drop our heads and we found a way to recover and get a quick goal was just huge. And once that happened, momentum was right back on our side. Our girls are just so competitive and they fought so hard today.”
Raiders head coach Jason Page said West Forsyth was just able to take better advantage of their opportunities.
“I don’t know that they flipped the momentum, but I just felt like we dictated much of the match and we didn’t convert some chances,” Page said. “We had a good game plan and executed it well. Unfortunately, we came up a little short, and that can happen in soccer.”
After a scoreless first half, Walton (20-2) grabbed the lead just two minutes into the second half, when Victoria Maselle sent a cross into the goal box, where Brooklyn Mulberry was waiting. She drilled a low shot into the net from eight yards out, giving the Raiders a 1-0 lead. On the play, West Forsyth goalkeeper Samantha Price was injured and had to be replaced by Addie Utz.
It may have been a tense moment for the Wolverines, but they responded like champions. Just 54 seconds after falling behind, AnnMarie Rudolph sent a cross into the middle that Rivera drilled home from 12 yards out for the equalizer.
Twenty minutes later, Rivera fed a pass to Murray, who worked her left-footed magic from 18 yards out to score what wound up being the game-winning goal.
Walton had a frantic final minute, with two corner kicks giving them opportunities to tie the match, but the Raiders could not convert the set pieces.
The title-game win put a cap on a fantastic career by West Forsyth’s four seniors, who end their careers with a pair of state championships.
“I think we kept our heads up the whole game and we didn’t let that first goal get us down,” said senior defender Elle Larsen. “We just stayed motivated all day. This feels so incredible… this is so exciting and it means so much to me since this was my last game. It’s amazing to go out like this… it’s definitely what we wanted to do.”
Walton outshot West Forsyth 14-5, but the Wolverines scored on both of their attempts on frame. The Raiders had seven shots on frame.
