ARVADA — It was just a few months ago that Lakewood wrapped up the Class 5A Jeffco League boys soccer title with a dramatic 1-0 overtime victory at Trailblazer Stadium.
Heart-pounding overtime wins for the Tigers continued Tuesday night at the North Area Athletic Complex. A bouncing ball found the feet of senior Alan Remic 2 minutes into overtime at the top of the goalie box.
“The ball came through and I could see the one-on-one with the goalie,” Remic said. “It was just an easy tap-in. It happened so fast. I was surprised (D’Evelyn goalie Callun McCabe) came out like he did.”
The Tigers went into celebration mode with a 3-2 overtime victory. Lakewood (6-0-1 record) trailed 1-0 and 2-1, but managed to stay undefeated on the season.
“It’s nice to get this win,” said Lakewood coach Tom Noor, who guided the Tigers to their first boys soccer conference title since 1995 last spring. “We haven’t lost in non-conference play this season so that is pretty cool. We’ve played some good teams. D’Evelyn is a good team.”
The Tigers have started their Fall 2021 campaign right were it finished its COVID-delayed Spring 2021 Season C that wrapped up in late April. Noor graduated nine seniors off that squad, but the current version is continuing last year’s script.
“I didn’t know how it would go,” Noor said of coming off last season’s conference title and 6-3-2 season. “We’ve had some success now and we’ll have to play against some really tough teams, but why not us. That was kind of our motto last year.”
D’Evelyn (2-4) looked to have Lakewood on the ropes at the NAAC. Senior Julian Castro got the lone goal in the first half. The Jaguars’ senior captain fired a long shot that was out of the reach of Lakewood senior goalie Karl Sugnet.
After a penalty kick goal by Lakewood senior Matt True in the 63rd minute that tied things up at 1-1, D’Evelyn grabbed the lead back late in the second half. Junior Daniel Savchenko tipped a shot on goal that Sugnet couldn’t handle with 2:58 left in regulation time.
However, Lakewood senior Spencer Aldrich’s direct free kick from the other side of midfield found junior Noah Harris who was able to rocket a shot into the back of the net with 20 seconds left in the second half, tying the game at 2-2.
“We really don’t know how to close out games yet,” D’Evelyn coach Paul Moline said after the Jaguars’ second overtime loss this season. “There is a little bit of anxiety. We don’t know how to manage those type of games yet.”
The Jaguars were coming off a 7-0 loss to 4A’s top-ranked Mullen back on Sept. 8 at NAAC. D’Evelyn has a bit of a break now before diving into 4A Jeffco League play against Golden on Sept. 23.
“We’ve got good players. Hopefully we can put it together,” Moline said.
Lakewood gets into 5A Jeffco League play and an attempt to defend its conference title this Friday night back at the NAAC against Pomona.
“I think win is good because we start conference this week,” Remic said. “This is something we can carry on to those games. It’s a big win to keep this streak going that we are on.”
The Tigers lost in the opening round of the 5A state tournament to Fairview last Spring. Lakewood would definitely like to take another step forward this Fall.
“We want to go above and beyond,” Remic said of this season. “We want to surprise some more people.”
