ARVADA — Five unanswered goals by No. 8-seeded Ralston Valley allowed the Mustangs to make history Tuesday night at the North Area Athletic Complex.
Ralston Valley’s 6-3 victory over No. 24 Liberty in the second-round Class 5A boys soccer state tournament advanced the Mustangs to the quarterfinals in the first time in the program’s history. Ralston Valley will faced top-seeded Legacy (16-1 record) on Saturday, Nov. 5, at Englewood High School.
Game times for all 5A quarterfinal games at Englewood High School will be announced Wednesday.
“It will be a battle,” Ralston Valley coach Jamie Scarcliff said facing No. 1 Legacy that eliminated the Mustangs in the first round of the postseason last year. “We’ve played them several times in playoffs. I think the kids will love the moment and love the opportunity. We’ll make the most of it.”
Legacy (16-1 record) shutout No. 17 Castle View 2-0 in another second-round game Tuesday night.
“I was privileged to be on that team last year that lost to Legacy,” Ralston Valley junior Ryan Mann said. “That still hurts a little bit. That is going to be our revenge game. We’ve got nothing to lose in our minds. They are the top-seed and all the pressure is on them.”
Liberty (9-7-1) put the pressure on Ralston Valley (12-5) early. The Lancers jumped out to a 3-1 lead. However, the tide started to turn just before halftime. Junior Liam Rooney headed in a goal with 33.8 seconds left to cut Liberty’s advantage to 3-2 at halftime.
It started a string of five unanswered goals by the Mustangs over a stretch of 30 minutes of playing time.
“Something changed in that second half,” Mann said. “We did what we know we can do and that is what happened, five goals unanswered.”
Mann tied it up 3-3 in the 50th minute with a penalty kick goal. The junior captain’s PK shot just ripped under the cross bar not giving Liberty junior goalie Jacob Mitchell a chance to make the save.
“When you are walking up you pick a spot in your mind,” Mann said of his penalty kick goal. “You don’t think about anything else or previous PK shots. You just take care of business.”
In the 65th minute Ralston Valley grabbed its first lead of the game. It looked like Liberty junior Caden Hickox would have a great chance of getting the hat-trick as he charged in on Ralston Valley junior goalie Evan Bierman.
“(Hickox) is someone I play with in club. I was waiting for a shot and a possible one-on-one,” Bierman said. “I saw Ryan (Mann) and Cole (Creasey) come through, go into a hard tackle and take the ball. The ball goes long to Coop. He does what he does and puts the ball way.”
A trio of Ralston Valley defenders took the ball from Hickox and sent a long pass upfield for sophomore Cooper Hineline. The leading scorer for the Mustangs cut toward the middle of the field to juke a defender and fired a shot past Mitchell.
“That was a huge turning point for us,” Scarcliff said of Hineline’s second goal in the 65th minute after the scoring chance by Hickox. “The momentum really shifted and took some wind out of their sails. It gave us the chance to push ahead.”
Ralston Valley sealed the victory with goals by junior Nathan Coggins (66th minute) and senior Jackson Ruff (70th minute) to complete the come-from-behind victory.
“I knew we were capable of scoring knowing where (Liberty’s) weaknesses were and where are strengths are,” Scarcliff said of the five unanswered goals. “I’m not sure about five goals. It was a huge scoring for a second-round playoff game. You don’t expect that many goals in a playoff game.”
The opening half was about as wild as you could get. Liberty put up a trio of goals. The first goal coming in the 8th minute from senior Isaac Lee. Senior Ty Kinder took a direct free kick atop the goal box. Bierman made the initial save, but Lee raced in to put in the rebound to give the Lancers a 1-0 lead.
Hineline tied it up at 1-1 in the 19th minute with a hard low shot that got past Mitchell.
Liberty would answer with a pair of goals from Hickox in the 22nd and 29th minutes to give the Lancers a 3-1 lead. In between all the goals, there was plenty of physical play with a number of fouls called and a couple of yellow cards dished out to both teams.
“I was telling myself the entire second half that my season is not going to end here,” Bierman said. “Second half we didn’t get scored on and we managed to put quite a few in.”
It was the fifth straight victory for Ralston Valley and 10th win in 11 games.
“If we play like we did tonight in the second half I don’t think anyone can stop us,” Mann said.