She’s not left-footed. Her weaker side still lifted Rocky Mountain to a district title
Rocky Mountain’s Dilynn Revelle claims she’s right-footed. But some might doubt that after Wednesday.
The sophomore buried a curling, 25-yard shot with her left foot in the 47th minute, lifting the Grizzlies to a come-from-behind, 2-1 victory over Bishop Kelly in the 6A District Three Tournament championship game.
“We’re always telling her to shoot with her left,” Rocky Mountain coach Eric Simmonsen said. “She actually strikes the ball better and cleaner (with her left foot), and she will just always go to her right.
“But she cracked it. It was a good hit, had pace and was driven right into the net.”
Revelle’s 13th goal of the season earned Rocky Mountain (15-1-2) its third district championship in the past six years. But the perennial power started the season looking to prove itself after missing state last year for just the second time in program history.
The 2024 campaign got off to a rough start with a 6-0 loss to the top-ranked team in Utah’s largest classification. But Rocky Mountain hasn’t lost since, stringing together an unbeaten streak of 17 games to return to the 6A state tournament in Sandpoint.
“We were very focused on this season,” said Revelle, a first-year varsity player. “We knew this was our season to go to state. We just all worked hard, and look where we’re at.”
Wednesday got off to another inauspicious start as Bishop Kelly (12-4-2) breached the Grizzlies’ defense in the fourth minute. Rocky Mountain attempted to clear a corner kick from Bishop Kelly’s Mary Higgins, but the clearance found its way back to Higgins, who fired the ball into the net for an early lead.
Rocky Mountain battled its way back through the wind, scoring the equalizer in the 24th minute. Senior forward Andi Hilton broke free for a 50-yard run down the left sideline before finding Campbell Wilson, who one-timed the cross into the net for her 28th goal of the year.
“She works so hard,” Campbell said of Hilton. “I just wanted to find that for her and be there for her. Her hard work down the line made me open for that goal.”
The Grizzlies ramped up the pressure in the second half, inundating the Bishop Kelly net with six shots on target. Revelle gave Rocky Mountain the lead with her left-footed strike. The Knights’ goalkeeper, Brooke Hutchinson, then made a pair of jaw-dropping saves — diving to stop a 15-yard bullet from Teagan Weigt and adding a kick save to turn away a Wilson breakaway — to keep BK in the game.
“She made a phenomenal save,” Bishop Kelly coach Dawn Hill said. “I still don’t know how she saved that. But she’s been great for us all year and a leader back there.”
Both Rocky Mountain and Bishop Kelly already punched their tickets to state Monday. The state seeds won’t be official until Sunday, but Rocky Mountain likely will finish as the No. 1 or No. 2 seed, potentially paving the way for more hardware.
“We set two goals at the beginning of the season, and that was to win districts and win state,” Wilson said. “So we’re just going to take this energy, pull it into state and hope we get first place there, too.”
The loss ended Bishop Kelly’s run of 15 straight district championships. The Knights won those previous titles in the state’s second division before choosing to move up to 6A this fall. Few expected Bishop Kelly to contend again after finishing seventh out of 13 teams in the preseason coaches’ poll. Yet the Knights are headed to state for the 19th straight year.
The state tournament kicks off Oct. 24 at Sandpoint’s War Memorial Field. Boise (12-2-2), Timberline (12-4-3) and defending state champ Owyhee (11-4-2) also qualified for the tournament out of the Southern Idaho Conference.
This story was originally published October 16, 2024 at 7:55 PM.
