HIGHLANDS RANCH — Jamie Tatum had a hat trick as Rock Canyon girls soccer cruised past Douglas County 6-1 on Thursday.

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MONTROSE — Grand Junction girls soccer moved to 4-0-0 with a 4-3 overtime win against Montrose on Thursday.

The Tigers had led 2-0 at halftime, but Montrose rallied to tie the game at 3-3 in the second half. Grand Junction then won it in overtime.

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A roundup of Jeffco prep highlights, interviews and schedules with Dennis Pleuss, Jeffco Public Schools’ Communication Specialist. This month’s edition features Evergreen capturing the Class 4A girls basketball state title, Lakewood girls basketball team run to the 5A championship game, Golden boys hoops gets to the Final 4, D’Evelyn and Lakewood battle on the soccer field, Green Mountain and Columbine boys lacrosse programs grab victories at Trailblazer Stadium and Pomona wins at the Arvada City Championships.

DENVER — Second-ranked Colorado Academy girls soccer beat SkyView Academy 6-0 in a Class 3A game on Thursday.

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CASTLE ROCK — Aubree Martinez and Eliot Edwards each scored two goals as No. 7 Chaparral girls soccer beat Castle View 6-1 on Thursday.

Malak Rafik and Maysa Walters also scored for the Wolverines (5-0-0).

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(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

HIGHLANDS RANCH — Strike first and strike often. That seemed to be the plan of attack for Mountain Vista boys lacrosse on Wednesday night.

The CHSAANow.com No. 3-ranked Golden Eagles showed they belong in the conversation as one of the best teams in the state with an impressive 14-3 over Rock Canyon.

But one win does not a contender make. If Mountain Vista truly wants to compete with the likes of a Cherry Creek or Regis Jesuit, they need to turn in more performances like their effort in Wednesday’s win.

“We have high expectations for the year,” Mountain Vista coach Jamie Munro said. “It doesn’t matter how good you think you are, you have to go out there, have some discipline and play as a team.”

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

It only took 36 seconds for the Golden Eagles (5-2 overall, 4-0 Douglas County) to get on the board as Griffin Bonjean fired a shot right by Jaguars (4-1, 0-1) goalie Erik Peters.

Colin Munro would make it a 2-0 lead just over three minutes later. In terms of ideal starts, Mountain Vista couldn’t have asked for a better one.

“We’re coming off a couple rough games with too many turnovers,” Munro said. “It was good for us to put a full game together on both ends of the field.”

Trailing 3-0 after the first quarter, Rock Canyon finally found the net thanks to Cooper McNeily, but overall they just weren’t able to break the Mountain Vista defense.

“We knew they were strong defensively,” Rock Canyon coach John Gallant said. “I think we had some good looks, we just didn’t take them.”

Every offensive possession for the Jaguars seemed stagnant and although they were patient in trying to find their shots, they simply weren’t getting enough openings throughout the game. And whatever shots they were able to fire off, Golden Eagles goalie Jonah Hirshorn was able to deflect them away.

“I thought it was a great moral builder for our defense today,” Hirshorn said. “We were in a two-game drought but today we scouted them real hard and came out guns blazing.”

With 29 seconds remaining in the first half, Jake Frane scored his second goal of the game to give Mountain Vista a 5-1.

Considering that Rock Canyon couldn’t make things happen on the handful of offensive possessions in the first half, the Golden Eagles went into halftime confident in their chances to come away with the win.

But that didn’t stop them from pressing the offensive attack in the second half. Jake Govett and Munro would add two more goals within a minute of each other, all but ending any hopes for the Jaguars to come back. Munro ended the game with five goals and two assists.

“We knew in the first half we had too many turnovers,” he said. “I told the guys I was going to be more careful with the ball (in the second half) and spread it around. Things started going well and we buried our shots.”

Next up for the Golden Eagles is a showdown with Douglas County on Friday. They’ll see Chaparral on Tuesday before starting a slate of non-league games that will include contests with Cherry Creek and Regis Jesuit.

Rock Canyon will try to rebound from the loss on Saturday when they travel to Colorado Academy.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

DENVER — Ari Fierer drove in two runs as fifth-ranked Colorado Academy baseball beat Summit 5-4 on Wednesday.

Graham Osman had a good outing on the mound, allowing just one hit and three walks in four innings. He struck out four.

Summit was led by Omar Nunez and Turner McDonald, who each had two hits.

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PARKER — The fourth-ranked Thompson Valley Eagles beat Ponderosa 11-10 in overtime in a Class 4A boys lacrosse showdown on Wednesday.

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Dusty Sprague is one of the best players in Holyoke football history. Now, he’ll be their head coach.

The Dragons hired Sprague, who graduated from the school in 2003, to lead their football program. He replaces John Zilla, who was 21-26 in five seasons.

Holyoke athletic director Sandra Rahe confirmed the hire to CHSAANow on Thursday.

A star athlete in high school — Sprague won the prestigious Fred Steinmark Award as a senior, was all-state in football, won the 110-meter hurdles and long jump at state track, and was all-state honorable mention in basketball — he went on to play football at the University of Colorado. There, he also starred, and finished with the ninth-most receiving yards and receptions in school history.

After graduating, he joined the staff at CSU-Pueblo as wide receivers coach for two seasons.

A Class 1A program, Holyoke went 4-5 last season.

Follow all of the offseason movement in our coaching changes tracker.

(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)

When asked about what winning the 4×400 means to the Fountain-Fort Carson boys each time they step on the track to race, the answer is almost instantaneous.

Tradition.

And with good reason. The Trojans have won state championship in the event in back-to-back years and this year, two of the four runners on last year’s team have already cemented their spot. With plenty of time to go until the state meet in May, there’s plenty of time for the other two spots to be filled.

Coach Ben Montoya even says that up to six runners are in line to battle for those two spots. But for now, whoever fills those spots at any given meet has to be ready to run with a chip on their shoulder as Jason Farrell and Sergio Cedano do every time the starting gun is fired.

“Every single we’re out here, we always know that we have the advantage,” Cedano said. “We just need to be sure we execute that advantage.”

They’ve been able to do that thus far. The Trojans have rattled off wins in the 4×400 in the last three meets that the team has competed at.

A big part of that is the leadership that Cedano and Farrell bring each week.

“They bring a lot of leadership,” Montoya said. “They’re fun to have on the team. On the bus ride home they’ll have little chats going and have the entire team involved. They lead our team warmup at the beginning of every meet.”

And they’re the ones who get things going in that race. Farrell is first off the blocks once the gun fires and he hands the baton to Cedano for the second leg.

Even with their experience, however, the team is still running about 10 seconds behind their state championship pace of 3 minutes, 17.91 seconds. That time was only three-tenths of a second better than the Fruita Monument team that finished second. They ran a 3:29.54 at the Palmer Terror Invitational on Saturday.

Regardless of which team takes the track at state, they’ll have their work cut out for them if they want to come away with a third-straight title in the event.

“It’s a big job,” Farrell said. “Especially since we ran a 3:17. We have some big shoes to fill.”

Malic Bonner was on the title team last year so he may have a shot at being back. The Trojans lost senior Christian Lyon, but his brother Jalen comes in this year as a junior.

But according to Montoya, it’s going to take more than just a last name fill a spot. Jalen was a state champion in the 4×200 last year along with Farrell and his older brother.

If one thing is for certain over the course of the next six weeks, it’s that this race is going to be quite the adventure for Montoya and his boys.

“Since we have a rich legacy in that race, we know it’s something we need to uphold every time we get on the track,” Cedano said. “We just make sure we put everything we have into that race and hope for the best.”