High school boys lacrosse: Brighton’s Austin Taylor led a lethal offense, named 2025 Deseret News Mr. Lacrosse – Deseret News

When Brighton entered the fourth quarter in its championship game with Park City, it trailed 7-4 and hadn’t held the lead for a single second. Through the first three quarters, the Miners just dominated while Brighton struggled to keep pace.
The Bengals’ Austin Taylor then did what he’s often done this season — he quietly dominated.
In the opening two minutes of the fourth quarter, Taylor delivered two goals to help Brighton tie it 7-7. Then, with a 9-9 tie, Taylor had the hockey assist to his teammate Gabriel Carrera, who found Colt McKean for the championship winning goal.
“He has that sense of knowing when he needs to start to take over and demand the ball a little more, but also knows when to let his teammates do that,” said Brighton head coach Chris O’Donnell. “All year when we’ve needed something, we looked to him to get us going.”
Looking to Taylor seemed like a recipe for success as Brighton soared to an 18-3 record and a second consecutive 5A state championship.
It was Taylor’s ability to take over when Brighton needed, but also having the focus to delegate to his teammates that set him apart. Throughout the 2025 season, Taylor tallied 102 points on 53 goals and 49 assists, while adding 63 groundballs and 14 caused turnovers.
His quiet, but effective leadership alongside his production made Taylor the 2025 Mr. Lacrosse recipient. Taylor is the fifth recipient and second from Brighton.
“Growing up, I was always a better passer and I was more that type of player,” Taylor said. “Now I’ve taken on more of a shooting role, but I’ve kept the passing part of my game and so I feel like I can see the field well and help make plays.”
You wouldn’t know it from his ferocity and competitiveness on the lacrosse field, but Taylor is a soft spoken leader. He hasn’t needed to explicitly say everything to his teammates, and he’s learned how to lead by example.
Part of his leadership tendencies is being a hard worker, which shows in his 4.0 GPA.
“That’s who he is,” O’Donnell said. “He’s kind of a, ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick,’ kind of leader. He’s got a great kind of mentality. He doesn’t have to say much, but the way he works, how he works and his attitude is what you’re going to follow.”
An aspect of Taylor’s game that particularly benefited from his hard work ethic is his size. Taylor stands slightly undersized at 5-foot-10, and growing up it forced him to pick lacrosse over basketball.
However, he didn’t let anything stop him and in the summers he worked on his strength and conditioning to make sure he was always in shape. When he entered his freshman year, he was brought up to varsity and was a varsity level player all four years of his high school career.
“It did help that I got a bit bigger naturally, but the biggest thing was just hitting the gym,” Taylor said. “During that time I did early morning training with a fitness coach. I worked harder than I ever had in the summer between my junior and senior year. That’s where most of my growth took place.”
Even as a smaller freshman, Taylor blew O’Donnell’s expectations out of the water. He had seen Taylor at some camps when Taylor was in middle school and there was never any doubt at his ability to be a starter level player out of the gate.
“We did a couple of things with the youth, probably around when he was in 6th grade and he was playing up an age group at that point,” O’Donnell said. “He did some things at a couple of those youth clinics that made him stand out at that age in terms of his ability. So, when he was coming into his freshman year, we knew he was a varsity player. We knew he was a little undersized, but it didn’t matter because his skill level is oversized.”
Taylor currently has a mission call for the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is set to serve in the Philippines. Once he returns home, his hard work will pay off as he plans to play lacrosse for Westminster.
He leaves his high school career with 125 goals, 132 assists, a 64-16 team record and two 5A state championships.
“I just have a competitive edge that comes out in the big games to kind of take over and I feel like I do everything well,” said Taylor. “I played man-down D-pole for us this year, and in attack and I was pretty even on assisting and goals. But, it’s just been so fun to go through the journey with (Brighton). They’ve taught me so much.”

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