FENTON >> Didn’t matter that it was pouring rain.

Didn’t matter that their program hadn’t been beyond this point since before a lot of the players were born, or that they were facing a program that is considered one of the bluebloods of the sport in this state, with a dozen semifinal appearances.

The only thing that matters is that the scoreboard at Fenton High School read “South Lyon United 12, Bloomfield Hills Cranbrook Kingswood 6” as the clock hit zeroes on Wednesday’s Division 1 semifinals, sending SLU to the championship game for the first time since 2008.

“I think it’s so special. … The last time we made it to a state championship, pretty much none of us were born. And I think it’s just such an amazing thing to like, come here two decades later and make it to a state championship,” Reagan Shields said. “And that is the goal of this team the entire season, and it’s just so special. And I’m so grateful to have Deanna (Radcliffe) as a coach, because without her, this would not be possible. And it’s just so great to, like, feel this and experience this, and it’s so indescribable.”

Next up, SLU will be facing a Hartland program that Radcliffe led to eight regional titles in nine seasons, before taking over the combined South Lyon-South Lyon East program prior to last season.

South Lyon United (23-0) will attempt to run the table on the season with one final game, taking on Hartland (20-5) in the D1 title game at University of Michigan Lacrosse Stadium on Saturday at 2 p.m. Hartland beat Rockford, last year’s runner-up, by a 7-6 margin in Wednesday’s other semifinal.

“I think, like, ever since I was a little kid and I dreamed of playing in high school, this … is the goal, this is what everyone tries to do. So I think now being here — obviously we’re not done yet. We still want to win that championship,” Shields said. “But I think if we play like we play, we can, and it’s just great to be able to compete for something like this, because it’s not something that happens a lot in our school history.”

On a six-game win streak of its own headed into Wednesday’s matchup, Cranbrook (10-8-1) was looking for its sixth finals appearance — all the previous ones were in Division 2 — and first since 2021’s runner-up finish.

But South Lyon United had already taken out another blueblood this season, after ending the title reign of three-time defending champion Brighton, 12-9, in the regional championship game last week, handing the Bulldogs their earliest postseason exit since 2017.

“I mean, it’s, it is fun. That’s why I keep doing it,” said Radcliffe, who was named the 2025 coach of the year by the Michigan Girls Lacrosse Coaches Association earlier in the day, after leading the Lions to her 10th regional title, and now second title-game appearance. “I don’t have kids that play. I mean, I just have played lacrosse my whole life, and I just want to keep making other girls love it, and I think they’re loving it right now.”

For a team that had scored 15 or more goals a dozen times this season, and 20-plus three times, early on, Wednesday’s game did not seem to be at that pace.

It was scoreless for more than eight minutes, before Cranbrook struck first, but South Lyon United answered with two goals before the end of the first period. SLU fell behind, 3-2, after two quick goals by the Cranes early in the second, then ripped off three straight goals to take a two-goal lead, 5-3, and again at 6-4.

“I just said ‘Hey, you know, it’s just a lacrosse game. You’ve done plenty of these.’ I think I told them, ‘You guys just have to settle in, you just have to get over the hump, and then you’ll be OK, and you can do what you’re normally do — possession, take care of the ball and look for good shots.’ I think we were doing a lot of back and forth, back and forth, and not really playing. They kept saying, ‘We’re not playing our game. We’re not playing our game.’ Well, you can fix that, not me. I think it’s just because they’re still young. I think it was just inexperience. And I think once they started to recognize it, they settled in. Then, I think they could feel it, and I think their confidence, you could just see it just change totally,” Radcliffe said.

“I figured if they would just settle in and recognize what the defense — sometimes they get ahead of themselves, and they don’t look and see what the defense is putting out there. I think once they were able to get it, they were starting to see the slides. And, in this weather, you can’t really like thread the needle necessarily so much. And so, once they took away those, like, random stuff, the panic passes to the middle, that helped them. It helped open up easier passes then.”

It was a four-goal burst — one each from Gabriela and Gianna Lucchesi and two from Shaelyn Perry — in the first eight minutes of the third period that allowed SLU to open up some separation.

“I think it was just that we just needed to play our game. And I think we were all so nervous and jittery, so we were making little mistakes,” Shields said. “We haven’t had a game in the rain like this for this whole season. So I think once we got to halftime, our coach kind of just sat us down, talked to us and just said, ‘This is your game, and you just have to show it. ‘I think that’s what changed it for us.”

After Alyssa Jakubiec scored with 8.6 seconds left in the third, notching her second goal of he game while falling down to give SLU an 11-5 lead headed to the fourth, Perry scored her fourth goal of the game with 8:19 left in the game, making the margin seven goals.

Shields had a pair of goals for SLU, while Cate Cumberland and Madison Lukas scored once each.

Six different Cranbrook players — Sydney Behnke, Sloane Cannarsa, Iris Kozak, Trinity Dougherty, Mira Norton and Layla Lantigua — each scored once for the Cranes.