US AIR FORCE ACADEMY – To the roster of the Air Academy boys lacrosse team, 2016 was a long time ago. The seniors on the team were barely in middle school which means the bulk of the team had yet to escape fifth grade.
A lifetime has seemingly happened in that time. But one thing that hadn’t happened since 2016 was the Kadets advancing to the Class 4A boys lacrosse semifinals.
Grant Rodny decided to end the drought by raining in goals early in the game and finishing with a season-high 11 goals once it was said and done. He netted a hat trick in the first quarter and scored three more in the second as No. 4 Air Academy topped No. 5 Green Mountain 18-7 in the state quarterfinals.
“We’ve been talking about for two or three weeks now, just focus,” coach Ethan Hilberg said. “We’ve changed a few things that we’ve been doing and we had a nice five-game homestand which helps a bit. We get into a bit of a good rhythm here.”
Next up is a trip to the University of Denver where Air Academy (14-3 overall) is tasked with taking down No. 1 Denver South. But the idea itself is not far-fetched. Green Mountain has a history of success in the state tournament having reached the semifinals as recently as 2019.
But the Rams (13-4) were outgunned from the moment the first face-off took place. In under two minutes, Ryan Flaherty had the Kadets on the board and then Rodny just completely took over the remainder of the first half.
His third goal of the game came with 19 seconds left in the first quarter and it put the Kadets up 5-1.
Beau Stratman came out with some aggression in the second quarter, taking the ball from freshman goalie Luke McLellan and tossing it into an empty net. But it wasn’t enough. Tuesday’s result was a far cry from the 10-9 overtime win that the Kadets had in the regular season.
“I got hurt that game,” Rodny said. “So I felt like I had a little bit of unfinished business.”
And he seemed intent on finishing it, as did the rest of the team. The Kadets turned on the afterburners and outscored Green Mountain 5-1 for the remainder of the second quarter to take a 10-3 lead at halftime.
“Everyone is part of every play,” Rodny said. “No matter who scores, we’re all a part of it. We just have great coaching this year and we’ve been practicing as hard as we ever have.
And while the Kadets could have gone into cruise control to start the second half, Rodny seemed determined to put together one of the greatest playoff performances in school history. He scored two goals in the first 90 seconds of the second half to put his total to nine before adding two more in the fourth quarter.
“I don’t know that I’ve seen a guy put up 11 on his own,” Hilberg said. “I thought he had 10 when we were trying to get other guys in. They’re a good enough team that we were nervous still in the fourth quarter. But what he did was special. I haven’t seen a high school kid perform at that level.”
And from there, all the Kadets needed was for time to run out on the clock. This game erases a bad memory of Air Academy’s last playoff performance where they lost to Thompson Valley 16-7 in the 2019 quarterfinals.
Now the team is just one win away from reaching its second 4A title game in school history. The Kadets advanced to the 2013 state championship game where they lost to Wheat Ridge 14-2.
But as shown on Tuesday, this Air Academy team isn’t short on firepower and if it can the kind of offensive surge that Rodny provided, a state championship is certainly in play.
