BROOMFIELD — Borja Garcia scored twice as seventh-seeded Evergreen upended No. 2 Broomfield 4-0 on Saturday. With the win, the Cougars move to the Class 4A semifinals.
Category: Boys Soccer
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Photo gallery: Broomfield moves on in boys soccer playoffs
BROOMFIELD — Porter Milner had two goals, Ben Gibble also scored and No. 2-seeded Broomfield beat No. 15 Pueblo West 3-1 to advance to the 4A boys soccer quarterfinals.
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No. 22 Liberty upsets No. 11 Arvada West on penalty kicks in 5A boys soccer playoffs
Arvada West’s Dominic Drumright (12) and Brandon Oeltjenbruns (6) attempt to get control of the ball from Liberty sophomore Jaylen Thompson during the Class 5A playoff game Thursday. (Dennis Pleuss) ARVADA — Liberty’s senior goalie Kyle Robinson used a little bit of guessing to advance the Lancers into the second round of the Class 5A boys soccer playoffs.
The No. 22 seed Liberty (9-6-1 record) defeated No. 11 seed Arvada West on Thursday at the North Area Athletic Complex in a game that was scoreless through 110 minutes of play. The game was decided on “kicks from the mark” where Robinson saved two of five shots to give the Lancers a 4-3 win on penalty kicks.
“We’ve been practicing (shootouts) all week,” Robinson said. “We’ve been feeling really comfortable with it. We knew we could win it.”
Robinson saved the Wildcats’ third and fifth shots. He said tried to read the PKs shots off the foot, along with doing a little bit of guessing.
Liberty junior Tyler Mellinger, who scored the game-winning goal during penalty kicks Thursday, heads the ball in front of Arvada West senior Cody Travers. (Dennis Pleuss) Arvada West sophomore goalie Andy Fendel saved the Lancers’ fourth shot to even the shootout at 3-3, but Robinson answered with another save to give Liberty junior Tyler Mellinger a chance to close out the game. Mellinger’s low shot found the back of the net to advance the Lancers into the second round.
“We played as hard as we could,” Mellinger said. “We knew we could get the win.”
A-West had to play a man down and with their back-up keeper after senior goalie Shazz Heale received a red card on play in the second minute of overtime. It was ruled that Heale denied Liberty a clear scoring chance when he collided with Lancer senior Klinton Spencer.
It was the 10th game this season A-West had played that was decided by one goal.
“That is just the way this team is built this year,” A-West coach Troy Gette said. “We defend and hope for our chance. We had several opportunities that we normally score on. We just didn’t get it done tonight.”
Gette was proud of his team how it played against Liberty’s scoring tandem of Spencer (16 goals) and junior Ryan Kenyon (10 goals).
“That was a great team we faced,” Gette said. “They probably have the most dynamic forwards that we’ve seen all season and we shut them out.”
A-West, which won its third consecutive 5A Jeffco League title this season, closed out its season with a 12-4 record.
Liberty will play its second round game on Wednesday, Oct. 30, against either Poudre or Cherry Creek.
Arvada West freshman Alec Breay, left, and Liberty senior Josh Tomlinson go after a header during the Class 5A boys soccer playoff game Thursday at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada. Liberty advanced into the second round with a 4-3 victory on penalty kicks. (Dennis Pleuss) 
Arvada West’s Dominic Drumright (12) and Brandon Oeltjenbruns (6) attempt to get control of the ball from Liberty sophomore Jaylen Thompson during the Class 5A playoff game Thursday. (Dennis Pleuss) -
Early goal holds up for Fort Collins boys soccer in win over Ralston Valley
Ralston Valley senior Dylan Konz (10) battles with Fort Collins sophomore Connor Lowdermilk (17) during the Class 5A state tournament opener round game Thursday at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada. (Dennis Pleuss) ARVADA — Early and often was a motto the boys soccer team from Fort Collins used Thursday night in its opening Class 5A playoff game.
The 17th-seeded Lambkins knew 16th-seeded Ralston Valley would want to put some early offensive pressure playing on its home field at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada. Fort Collins countered with some early offensive fireworks of its own with a goal in the 9th minute that held up for a 1-0 victory.
“The whole thing coming into this game is (Ralston Valley) starts fast. They start quick,” Fort Collins senior Zach Fronapfel said. “We made them chase us and it worked.”
Ralston Valley junior Nic Snyder, left, attempt to find a way past Fort Collins junior Josh Nelson on Thursday night at the North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada. The Lambkins took a 1-0 victory in the first round of the Class 5A state tournament and will face top-seed Smoky Hill next Wednesday. (Dennis Pleuss) Fronapfel scored the lone goal with a header that beat Ralston Valley junior goalie Antonio Celano. The feed to Fronapfel came off the foot of senior Austin Rudd.
The play started when Rudd threw in a long throw-in, but got the ball back on his foot when Ralston Valley cleared it out of the goalie box.
“I saw (Fronapfel) and played it in,” Rudd said. “He was in the perfect spot. It was amazing.”
Ralston Valley applied some pressure late in the game, but couldn’t score the equalizer on Fort Collins junior goalie Jack Jordan.
“We fought like crazy,” Ralston Valley coach Kyle Kazemi said of the final offensive flurry by the Mustangs in the closing minutes.
Ralston Valley ended its season with a 10-5-1 record, finishing third in the 5A Jeffco League.
“This group only expected success,” Kazemi said. “This is really heartbreaking. Not the fact we lost, but they no longer get to do the thing they do, play as a team.”
Fort Collins (8-4-4) moves on to the second round where the Lambkins will face top-seeded Smoky Hill on Wednesday, Oct. 30. The Buffaloes defeated Westminster 7-1 in the opening round.
Fronapfel said the road victory over Ralston Valley would give the Lambkins some good momentum heading into the round of 16.
“We know now we can go on the road and get a win in the playoff,” Fronapfel said.
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After 20 years, Westminster boys soccer back in playoffs
Westminster’s boys soccer team, pictured after a senior night win over Northglenn. (Courtesy photo) Westminster’s boys soccer team started the 2013 campaign 0-5-0. They’d hired their head coach one week before the season, and won a total of five games over the previous four seasons.
Yet, Thursday night, the Wolves will play in the Class 5A playoffs for the first time in at least 20 seasons. How? Well, for starters, they found a formation to their liking. And then they started winning.
Sercan Fenerci is the head boys basketball coach at Thornton, and was actually named the coach of the year by the EMAC last season. Originally from Turkey, he played college basketball at Angelo State in Texas, and was a collegiate coach at a Division III school in the Boston area. He started with basketball there, but eventually helped start a men’s soccer program, and coached that, too.
“I grew up playing soccer,” Fenerci said. “I was like, ‘Oh, I’m really tall.’ And my dad’s like, ‘Oh, you should play basketball.’ I ended up doing that, and I played college ball here (in the U.S.), in basketball, but the soccer never left. I would always watch soccer on the weekend, the Premier League, just to keep up with it.”
In May, Westminster’s boys soccer job opened.
“I applied,” Fenerci said, “but I was like, ‘I’m not sure if I want to take on another coaching job, because I’m already coaching basketball.’”
Westminster had another coach in place, but it fell through.
“Then I got the call literally a week before and interviewed,” Fenerci said. “They hired me in the afternoon and we started the very next day. So it was a very quick transition.”
There were no time for tryouts, no time for any real preparation for the season. And the schedule wasn’t very forgiving. Westminster opened with Arvada West, the eventual Jeffco Champions, and George Washington, which won the Denver Prep League.
“It was very challenging the first couple of games, I can tell you that,” Fenerci said. “Especially the first four or five games, we told the kids those were our scrimmages — because we didn’t know about formations we could play, we didn’t know who can play what position. So basically, the first month of my job was figuring out who we have, who can play better in what position.”The Wolves tried four different formations during the first five games, eventually settling on a 4-4-2. But, “being a basketball coach,” Fenerci said, “I was having calls during a game to change the formation. We had some names for different formations, and when I called that, they would change into that just to catch the other teams off-guard. It worked in several games.”
Westminster’s first win? Thornton, in overtime.
“That made it little more interesting,” the coach said. “I told the kids, ‘You’ve got to win this for me.’”
Westminster finished the season by going 6-3-1 to end 6-8-1. Mind you, this team had been 5-48-3 from 2009-12.
The Wolves are the No. 32 seed in the playoffs. It means they face No. 1 overall Smoky Hill on Thursday night.
“Smoky Hill is a very powerful school. They’re a powerhouse,” Fenerci said. “They have been winning a lot of games the past few years. Our thing is, we are the underdogs, we’re going to play relaxed soccer. They must beat us. They are the heavy favorites; for them, it’s a must. For us, you know what? We’re just going to go out there and give it our best and see what happens.”
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5A boys soccer state tournament bracket
Boys soccer’s 2013 state tournament bracket for Class 5A.
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4A boys soccer state tournament bracket
Boys soccer’s 2013 state tournament bracket for Class 4A.
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3A boys soccer state tournament bracket
Boys soccer’s 2013 state tournament bracket for Class 3A.
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Boys soccer’s state tournament brackets released
AURORA — Smoky Hill, Air Academy, and Colorado Academy are the top seeds in their respective boys soccer state tournaments.
The Class 5A, 4A and 3A state brackets were released on Sunday afternoon. Find them here:
The brackets were put together by a seeding and pairing committee. The committee members are nominated by each region/league president and shared with the CHSAA office. Also serving on the committee are:
- The President of the Soccer Coaches Association (non-voting member)
- The CHSSCA Poll Director (non-voting member)
- The CHSSCA Poll Advisor (non-voting member)
- One non voting representative from the CHSAA office
Criteria for each bracket:
- Each region/league will receive automatic qualifiers equaling no more than 40 percent of the number of teams in in the region/league. In the case that the percentage of teams results in a non-whole number the number of qualifiers will be truncated to the nearest whole number. (Example 3.6 becomes 3.)
- All region/leagues are guaranteed a minimum of one automatic qualifier.
At-large teams will be selected and placed on the bracket using the following resources (in no particular order):
- MaxPreps Ranking
- League poll
- Head-to-head competition
- Common opponents
- Region/league regular season finish must be honored when selecting at-large teams.
The semifinals are scheduled for Nov. 6 at these sites:
- 3A: All-City Stadium, Denver Public Schools
- 4A: Sports Authority Stadium, Parker
- 5A: Legacy Stadium, Cherokee Trail High School
The season is scheduled to conclude with the State Championships on Nov. 9 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park:
- 4A: 10:30 a.m.
- 3A: 1:00 p.m.
- 5A: 3:30 p.m.
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Fossil Ridge notches important win over Poudre in boys soccer
(Jon E. Yunt) FORT COLLINS — All Fossil Ridge boys soccer coach Shannon Clarke could do was shake his head.
His SaberCats have spent the season dominating the run of play, yet had very little to show for it. Their 7-5-1 overall mark and 5-3-1 Front Range League mark entering Wednesday nights season finale against crosstown rival Poudre had them on the outside looking in as far as an automatic bid to the 32 team Class 5A playoff field.
They still might need a few things to go their way, but the SaberCats did themselves a huge favor at J. Ray French Field by dispatching Poudre 1-0. If anything, it’s a win that could impress the selection committee and earn them an at-large bid.
“Like every game this season, I felt like we completely dominated the play and had a gagillion chances to their very few, and finally tonight we get the winning stroke,” Clarke said. “So many times it has gone the other way for us, just like that.”
Fossil Ridge completely dominated the run of play and out-shot the Impalas 12-1, including 10-0 in the second half. Yet, they had nothing to show for it for the first 75 minutes of the game.
Finally, in the 76th minute, the SaberCats lined up for a corner kick and Elliot Weber sent a well-placed ball to the near post and senior midfielder Jarrett Pugh finished with his head past goalie Hector Torales.
“We just had to keep with our system and we had a couple of calls go against us and we were pushing to get that goal the whole game,” said Pugh, who proudly wore the captain’s band. “We just kept working hard, serving in those balls and we were finally able to get one. This was a good team win.”
Torales was brilliant in net for the Impalas, who scored a huge win for the playoffs chances on Tuesday night against Fort Collins. The senior, who had never played soccer before this year, finished with 11 saves — none bigger than midway through the second half on a Gage Clifton shot.
“He’s an athletic kid and he’s got great hands,” said Poudre coach Erik Eckhoff of his goalie. “He’s a humble kid and he likes to work and he’s been huge for us.”
Poudre drops to 10-4 overall and now 5-4 in a very deep league. Eckhoff thinks his team has done enough to warrant a shot at postseason play.
“But a game like that and the game against Collins (Tuesday) night definitely helps us, even though this was a 1-0 loss, it’s still a 1-0 loss to one of the better teams in the state and a team that dominated us for most of the game,” he said. “Based on last night and tonight, people don’t look at 1-0 losses to Fossil and say they are totally out. They are going to say ‘Wow, they busted their butt.’”
Also on the line Wednesday night were Choice City bragging rights. Between the four 5A schools in the city of Fort Collins, it is the SaberCats — who beat Rocky Mountain and Poudre and tied Fort Collins — that will hold the crown for another season.
“City games, you can just throw the records out the window,” Pugh said. “We all play with each other in club and we all know each other really well and we have these rivalries in the fall, so it’s always nice to get a win against a city team.”
The CHSAA will announce all three classifications of state brackets on Sunday afternoon.