ARVADA — Ralston Valley’s girls soccer team had a statement victory to open Class 5A Jeffco League play Monday night at the North Area Athletic Complex.
The Mustangs — No. 9 in the CHSAANow.com 5A rankings — defeated perviously undefeated Lakewood 6-0 in the conference opener for both squads.
“Coming in off the tie over the weekend we wanted to come out hard,” Ralston Valley sophomore Sophia Sabus said of a 0-0 draw against No. 6 Mountain Vista on April 9.
The first blemish of the season for Ralston Valley (5-0-1, 1-0 in league) clearly had the Mustangs focused and motivated to begin conference play against Lakewood (6-1, 0-1).
“We had a team meeting at my house at 5 p.m. today to debrief our Mountain Vista game,” Ralston Valley coach Kamee Morwood said. “We realize we can be dominate. We won’t underestimate anyone, but we are very good. We have to set the pace from the very beginning.”
Ralston Valley controlled the run of play for the majority of the first half and got on the board with a hard shot from senior Morgan Terry in the 21st minute. Lakewood senior goalie Riley Sawinski couldn’t corral the shot from Terry, giving the Mustangs a 1-0 lead.
“To get up by a goal and get our confidence up by working really hard,” Morwood said. “Sometimes it takes one of those kind of goals. It was good work by Anna (Schellpeper) off the ball and then a hard shot by Morgan (Terry).”
It was all Mustangs in the second half with the Sabus sisters — Sophia and Saya — Hollie LaLonde and Raleigh Greason all finding the back of the net for Ralston Valley.
“That kicked us off, but at halftime we weren’t satisfied with 1-0,” Sophia said of Terry’s goal.
Sophia, a sophomore, was able to bend a corner kick into the net in the 52nd minute, giving the Mustangs a 2-0 lead.
“I was hitting it as close to the goal as I could,” Sophia said of her corner kick goal. “I’ve done it before, but I saw the goalie didn’t touch it. I was just hoping it would go in.”
Seven minutes later her older sister Saya, a senior, ripped a shot under the cross bar for a 3-0 Mustang lead. It was the eighth goal of the season for the future women’s basketball player at Colorado School of Mines.
Sophia scored her sixth goal of the season on a shot from the middle of the box in traffic in the 62nd minute. LaLonde and Greason finished off the scoring with goals a few minutes apart to push the final score to 6-0.
“Coming out in the second half we wanted to have more of the possession,” Sophia said. “Once we possess the ball we’ll get more chances.”
Lakewood didn’t get many scoring chances at all as Ralston Valley sophomore goalie Margot Mulhern was able to record another clean sheet for the Mustangs. It was the sixth straight shutout by Ralston Valley to start this season.
“We are just focusing on winning,” Morwood said of the shutout streak that has is now at nearly 500 minutes over six games and two overtime periods. “Our goal is to win as a team no matter the score. We have never had this shutout streak before. It’s really fun to watch them.”
The remarkable shutout streak is something the players are thinking about as league play really kicks in for Ralston Valley.
“I think every time we come into a game now we want to keep that scoreless streak going,” Sophia said.
Ralston Valley returns to the pitch at NAAC to face Chatfield (4-3-1, 0-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 14. Lakewood attempts to get back in the win column when it goes up against Dakota Ridge (4-4, 0-1) at 7 p.m. Thursday, April 14, at Lakewood Memorial Field.