Casteel's girls soccer team finished some unfinished business Tuesday night. Hard to explain that since the Colts already won a state title two years ago with many of the players on that first title team still in the fold.

The unfinished business was winning a 5A championship. It was accomplished in dominating fashion as the top-seeded Colts defeated No. 10 Ironwood Ridge, 3-0, in the title match at Higley High School.

Casteel's first title in 2018 was in 3A with plenty of freshmen and sophomores on that team. The next year the school jumped to 5A as the school population accelerated quickly warranting the two-class bump. The Colts failed to win the 5A championship last year in their first year. They lost in the semifinals, 1-0. 

That got under the skin of Colts' senior Sam Anger.

"A lot of people were saying it was no big deal winning in 3A," Anger said. "'I'm really glad we won tonight so we could prove those people wrong.'

Casteel finished its second championship season 16-2-1 and was 14-0-1 in its final 15 games. Ironwood Ridge scored three clutch wins in four postseason games on the way to reaching the final. The Nighthawks loss Tuesday was their first in their last 12 games - a run of 10 wins, one loss and one tie. They closed the season 12-8-3.

The lead in the game came fairly quickly for Casteel. In the 12th minute senior Lily Lentz sent a tight corner kick toward the far post and Anger headed it in for the 1-0 lead.

"Yes," Anger stubbornly admitte. "I knocked it in. But I wanted it to ber Lily's."

Casteel was on the attack and at Ironwood Ridge's end of the field much of the game. The second goal came in the 44th minute a top-shelf bullet from about 30 yards out by senior Morgan Lewis that Ironwood Ridge keeper Kelli Suckell had no chance of stopping. 

Lewis' sister - freshman Nathalie Lewis put the finishing touches on the victory tallying on a breakaway in the 67th minute.

"Ironwood Ridge was a force, it wasn't that easy," Casteel coach Jason Hammonds said. "This team has played so well most of the time. We were really aggressive again tonight. So proud of how we played."

Ironwood Ridge coach Sean Watkins was hoping for one more chapter to a surprising season, he termed a rebuilding season. The Nighthawks won a play-in game in overtime, won in the a quarterfinals in overtime and tin the semis via a shootout.

"This team filled me up as a coach more than any other team I've had," Watkins said. "They have been so resilient. Bend don't break. They gave everything they've got. and many of them learned and played new positons they weren't used to."