LAKEWOOD — Dakota Ridge officially took the driver’s seat in the girls soccer Class 4A Jeffco League standings Monday night.
The Eagles — No. 2 in the CHSAANow.com 4A rankings — scored a flurry of goals in the second half against Golden to take a 6-2 victory at Lakewood Memorial Field.
Dakota Ridge (9-1, 5-0 in league) grabbed a one-game lead in the loss column over No. 4 Green Mountain, D’Evelyn and Golden with the victory. The Eagles control their own destiny in winning the conference and claiming the automatic bid for the 4A state tournament with three league games remaining.
“We are going one half at a time. We go half-by-half,” Dakota Ridge coach John Cassidy said of the Eagles sitting in first place. “I think the most important thing is we qualify for playoffs. That is their initial goal for right now.”
Dakota Ridge held a slim 1-0 lead at halftime against Golden (6-4, 3-1). Junior Payton Tanner scored her first goal of the season on a long shot in the 27th minute.
Goals were scored at will after halftime, especially off the foot of Bailey Pignatore. The Dakota Ridge senior put in four goals over the span of 7 minutes in the second half.
“I was just really frustrated because I thought I wasn’t playing really good,” Pignatore said of finding the back of the net four times. “Once I get frustrated I play better.”
Senior Hannah Arnold gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead with a goal in the 52nd minute off a great long feed from junior Jordan Whiteaker. Then it was time for Pignatore to go to work.
Pignatore scored in the 65th, 66th, 71st and 72nd minutes to extend the lead to 6-2. Golden got goals from freshman Kate Hertz and junior Sophia Nickel in between Pignatore’s scoring barrage.
“I haven’t done that before,” Pignatore said with a laugh when asked if she had ever scored four goals in the span of seven minutes. “Once I get one I usually get more because I get more into the game.”
This is Pignatore’s first season playing for the Eagles. She has gone through injuries that prevented her from playing the last two seasons.
“She has been out for two years with double ACL injuries,” Cassidy said of Pignatore. “When she came back and wanted to play I told her the only thing we were going to focus on was her being happy.”
The Eagles are happy with their 4-game win streak. Dakota Ridge closes league play with games against Conifer, D’Evelyn and Evergreen before a non-league game May 6 against Vista Peak.
Dakota Ridge is attempting to win its first conference title since winning the 5A Jeffco League title back in 2011.
“They are having such a good time and they are so into each other,”Cassidy said of his Eagles. “They don’t even know that they are ranked. They just want to play and we focus on that.”