Junior Nasir Poshka fell to his knees.

Senior Tai-Tai Mateaki sprinted into the arms of Dereck Ortega Mora.

More than one Lynx yanked off their jersey.

After eight long years, the Dimond Lynx were state soccer champions again, and were ready to celebrate immediately after Saturday’s state final ended.

“Very proud,” Dimond sophomore Kai Walker said. “A lot of times, it’s just been about the girls (soccer program) and just for us to be known as the boys side that won state this year, it feels great.”

Dimond capped its unbeaten season Saturday at Wasilla High School against Railbelt Conference power West Valley, defeating the Wolfpack 1-0 in the boys soccer state final. It was the Lynx’s first state title since 2018. Dimond also won championships in 1996, 1999, 2002, 2012, and 2015.

“It puts us on notice,” Dimond senior Justis Shook said. “It proves that we got a great coach (Seth O’Banion), he’s awesome and motivates us all the time.”

The game’s lone goal belonged to Walker, who was assisted by Mateaki on a beautiful pass.

Emotions ran high from the jump, both on the field and in the stands. West Valley sought to cleanse itself from last year’s state final penalty kick shootout loss, and Dimond to put some respect on their program.

Despite defeating West Valley (15-2-0) last month, Dimond (18-0-1), due to the state tournament’s statistical rankings, entered the tournament ranked below the Wolfpack.

“They’re upset about having the second seed when they thought they should have the first, valid argument,” West Valley coach Damon Crutcher said. “But, we knew they were going to come out flying, we had to meet that challenge. It just felt like they worked a little bit harder than us in that first 20 minutes and they were able to set their tone. That made the game a little more difficult.”

Given the added motivation for both programs, Saturday’s tilt felt like a predetermined destiny.

West Valley hung four goals on Service in the quarterfinals and then blanked Juneau-Douglas 2-0, while Dimond dusted Chugiak 4-1 in its quarters before knocking off defending state champion West Anchorage 3-1.

Altogether, officials carded five players on Saturday, two from Dimond and three from West Valley. The infractions caught up to West Valley early in the second half.

In the 41st minute, Ortega Mora tumbled to the pitch.

The Lynx’s top goal scorer dribbled past a West Valley defender when he was tripped from behind by Quinn Willis. It was Willis’s second yellow card of the match, abruptly ending the all-conference talent’s night.

For the rest of the way, West Valley could field only 10 players to Dimond’s 11.

But even when it was 11 on 11, Dimond played like the better team.

“Before this game, we talked about, you know, the first 10 to 15 minutes matters and then the rest is ours,” Shook said. “But everybody comes out strong at the beginning, so we wanted to be that first team to do that and be able to finish those opportunities.”

The Wolfpack had size and strength up and down the roster. At 6-foot-1, all-conference centerback Adom Lassey was just one of the Wolfpack’s big and strong seniors.

“I would say this is my first physical actual back line that I’ve gone against,” Walker said. “They’re great defenders but I think just us moving the ball around and just finding each other more and more just helped us win.”

West Valley goalkeeper Jacob Scherer denied Walker around the 23rd minute on a sharp-angled shot, but the speedy forward scored just 10 minutes later.

Mateaki passed the ball up to Ortega Mora, whose through ball found Walker as he zoomed past multiple defenders. Walker caught up to the ball about 15 yards from the net, and with his first touch, shot it past Scherer for the go-ahead goal.

“It’s crazy how those things pan out from just one little pass, (it) can change a whole game and that’s what happened,” Shook said. “That one pass won us this championship.”

On the other side of the field, Dimond did a good job slowing down Railbelt Conference MVP Koen Aitken.

Credit Shook and the rest of the Lynx defenders.

Shook was still not 100%, nursing what he said might have been a ruptured spleen from a hard tackle earlier this year.

“We won the chip, I can rest now,” Shook said.

West Valley did not show any signs of quitting after going down to 10 players, and Dimond missed a few scoring opportunities.

Ortega Mora pulled a shot wide of the net around the 60th minute, and minutes later, was stopped at point-blank range by Scherer.

But West Valley never found that golden scoring opportunity to tie it late.