Ironwood Ridge junior Kelli Suckell saves the ball during the 5A girls soccer state championship between Queen Creek Casteel and Oro Valley Ironwood Ridge on Feb. 25, 2020.

 Eli Imadali / The Arizona Republic

GILBERT β€” Lily Lentz had the opening goal as top-seeded Queen Creek Casteel High School defeated Ironwood Ridge 3-0 in the Class 5A girls soccer championship game Tuesday night at Higley High School. The loss ended an amazing run for the 10th-seeded Nighthawks.

The Colts controlled the match's pace from the start. Their aggressive attack included 16 shot attempts and Casteel's defense produced eight steals.

Ironwood Ridge (12-8-3) had six shot attempts against Casteel's counterattack.

Lentz scored the match's first goal on a corner kick at the 28-minute mark in the first half. Morgan Lewis kicked in a high sailing 30-yard shot into net over Ironwood Ridge junior goalkeeper Kelli Suckell for Casteel's second goal at the 36-minute mark.

Late in the second half, Morgan's freshman sister Nathalie Lewis attacked and scored Casteel's third and final goal to go up 3-0.

Tuesday marked Ironwood Ridge's first state title game appearance since 2011; the Nighthawks have never won a girls soccer state championship.

The Nighthawks made an improbable run as the 5A tournament's 10th seed after starting the season on a 2-7-2 record, going without a win for almost one month between Dec. 12 and Jan. 7.

"In the beginning, I would have never thought we would come here. I didn't even think we would've made the playoffs. I knew at our Campo (Verde) game once we won we were meant to make it all the way. If we win or lose, it's still an honor to play with my team," Ironwood Ridge senior forward Mia Welch said.

Ironwood Ridge made a incredible run through the playoff bracket, upsetting No. 7 Rincon/University in the first round, edging Gilbert Campo Verde 1-0 in the quarterfinals and beating Scottsdale Desert Mountain on penalty kicks in the semis after the teams played to a 1-1 tie in regulation and overtime.

"We were 2-7-2 to start the season, were real young and lost seven starters and three key backups. We were rebuilding and these girls decided to build a championship run and they did it with competitiveness, hard work, resiliency and bend-but-don't-break mentality the entire season," Ironwood Ridge coach Sean Watkins said. "I kept feeding them 'You guys are good, you guys are good and you're in the conversation of every game that you played. (Senior forward) Katie Jeffers got healthy and she came back and that helped us out a little bit and some of our young players started to mature a little bit and we went on that run."

Check out photos from Tuesday night's state title game here:

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