ENGLEWOOD – The 2022 4A boys lacrosse championship game will have a Colorado Springs vibe to it, as No. 3 Cheyenne Mountain and No. 4 Air Academy won their semifinal games tonight at Englewood’s Pirate Stadium to advance to Friday’s championship game.
(3) Cheyenne Mountain 9, (2) Erie 7
Despite being in an unfamiliar position seed wise, the Cheyenne Mountain boys lacrosse team is back in a familiar place, the 4A title game.
With a 9-7 triumph over No. 2 seeded Erie, the No. 3 seeded Red-Tailed Hawks are returning to the finals for the fourth-consecutive season.
“We battled so hard tonight, but so did Erie,” CM head coach Mike Paige stated. “I have nothing but positive things to say about that program, we battled and they battled. We changed our offense a little bit, we hadn’t done that all year and I think that caught them off guard a little bit. It worked exactly like we planned. I’m just proud of our guys and our coaching staff.”
The last two postseasons, they were the top seed. This time around, they had to get a little revenge, as the Tigers bested CM in the season finale back on May 6, 11-9.
“Losing is a really important component of life,” Paige added. “It makes you reevaluate what you thought you were, and our guys came away with that lesson and they knew they had to be grittier and be tougher and they had to practice harder and that’s exactly what they did. Winning this game is a huge testament to who they are.”
Leading the Red-Tailed Hawks on offense were Kevin Papa, Kasey Freeman, and Wyatt Furda, who all tallied a pair of goals. The leading scorer in the game was Erie’s Corby Tecu, who netted a trio. Erie’s Liam Connors also added a pair. Erie finishes the season with a 14-4 mark, and a second-consecutive defeat at the hands of CM in the semis.
The first quarter was back-and-forth, as Cheyenne Mountain opened the scoring, before Erie responded with two straight. The Red-Tailed Hawks got the last goal of the first stanza on a goal from Kevin Papa to keep it 2-2 into the second.
Cheyenne Mountain regained the lead right away in the second on a goal from Furda, and the lead held until the 8:10 mark on Tecu’s second goal, keeping the game tied. Down the stretch of the second half, Freeman scored two goals for Cheyenne Mountain, one at the four-minute mark, the other with six seconds left on the clock, to give the Maroon and White a 5-3 lead into the half.
The CM lead extended to three early in the third quarter on an Anthony DeCesaro goal, which was followed by Papa’s second goal of the evening at the 5:35 mark to open up the game, 7-3.
Erie broke the scoring drought at the 2:26 mark on a goal from Charlie O’Brien to keep it a three-goal game, which held at 7-4 into the fourth.
The Tigers kept the positive momentum starting off the fourth, as Connors scored to get it back to a two-goal game. Connors scored again at the 6:03 mark to get the Tigers all the way back down one, 7-6.
The Red-Tailed Hawks stopped the bleeding a couple minutes later on a goal from Hank Walsh. They added some insurance with just under three minutes to play on a second goal from Furda. Despite a late goal from Tecu, his third, it was too little too late as Cheyenne Mountain held on for the two-goal win.
(4) Air Academy 11, (1) Denver South 10 (OT)
The nightcap was a soggy affair, with heavy rains throughout, and it was enough to cool off the red-hot top seeded Denver South Ravens, as No. 4 Air Academy upset the top seed, 11-10, in an OT thriller.
Down 9-5 at the half, the Kadets outscored the Ravens 6-1 in the second half to come away with the victory and their first championship game appearance since 2013.
Kadet senior Ryan Flaherty was the hero, scoring less than a minute into OT. It was his third goal of the game.
Air Academy’s Jasper Iaconis added three as well, including the goal that sent it to OT, while Brandon Montoya scored two. For Denver South, who ended the season at 16-2, they were led on offense by Karson Sparks who scored four, and Grady Ward who scored two.
The Kadets came out firing, scoring the first two goals of the game to take an early 2-0 advantage. The Ravens responded with four-straight to take a 4-2 lead after the first 12 minutes of play.
South continued the offensive attack in the second quarter, as Sparks scored the next two, his third and fourth goals of the game, to make it 6-2. The six-goal streak was ended at the midway point of the second quarter on a goal from Jasper Iaconis, keeping the Kadets within striking distance, 6-3.
The two teams then traded two goals each, making it 8-5, before South scored with about 12 seconds left in the half to take a 9-5 lead into the locker rooms.
As the rain picked up in the second half, the offenses started to simmer a bit, as Air Academy broke the ice in the second half at the eight-minute mark. Obringer scored his second to get the score to 9-6. The Kadets continued to play stout defense, and it led to another goal from Montoya with just under a minute left to get it to 9-7 into the final quarter.
The Kadets got it to one right at the start of the fourth on a goal from Flaherty, but Denver South scored their first goal of the second half shortly thereafter from Luke Mahoney to stay ahead by two, 10-8.
After another scoring drought, the Kadets scored with just under five minutes to go on Flaherty’s second goal to make it 10-9 down the stretch. After a penalty, the Kadets took full advantage as Iaconis scored with 1:26 to play to tie the game up for the first time since the early portion of the game.
In OT, Air Academy won the faceoff, and less than a minute later Flaherty cut through the middle to score the sudden death goal and send the Kadets to the title game.