ARVADA — The 1-5 start to the season is well in the rearview mirror for Columbine’s boys soccer team.
The Rebels captured their sixth straight victory Monday night at the North Area Athletic Complex. Columbine defeated Pomona 11-1 in the Class 5A Jeffco League game.
“Feels like it was a long time ago because we’ve worked so much harder and come such a long way,” Columbine junior Keagan Gerrasch said of the slow start for the Rebels. “We have really come into our true form of a team now.”
Columbine (7-5, 4-0 in 5A Jeffco) got first half goals from Ty Santangelo, Tony Iljkic and James Wirtzfeld. Gerrasch put in a pair of goals to put the Rebels up 5-1 at halftime.
“We dug a pretty big hole at the start of the season,” Columbine coach Brian Todd admitted. “It has just taken sometime to come together. We’ve got a more than decent group. They are starting to gel.”
It was all Columbine in the second half. Seniors Carter O’Keefe, Ryan Seaton and Brian Marshall all found the back of the net. Freshman Jack Dively scored a second-half hat-trick scoring three goals in the span of 8 minutes.
“I defintely think this game is going to help us out a lot,” Gerrasch said of the Rebels giving plenty of bench players time in the 10-goal victory. “This next practice we’ll be able to go top speed and be ready for the next three upcoming games.”
Columbine is back at Lakewood Memorial Field to face Bear Creek on Thursday before finishing off its league schedule. The Rebels are on the road next week against No. 1 Valor Christian and Ralston Valley where the league title will be on the line.
“Bear Creek is defintely in our way,” Gerrasch said. “It will be a good game, but I think we’ll come out on top in that one. Then we’ll have to really focus on Ralston and Valor to get that league championship.”
Todd doesn’t want his Rebels to take Bear Creek (6-6, 1-3) lightly. The Bears put up a great fight against Valor (11-0-1, 4-0) on Monday night at Lakewood Memorial Field. Valor took a 1-0 victory over Bear Creek in double-overtime.
“It is setting up really nice for us,” Todd said of having a shot of being undefeated in league going into the final week of the regular season. “We can’t overlook Thursday at all. Bear Creek is a really good team and a lot of our boys plays club ball with players from Bear Creek. It’s a little bit of a rivalry match right now.”
Pomona (1-11, 0-4) made sure it didn’t get shut out on its Senior Night. The Panthers got on the board in the 34th minute with a nice free kick from long distance from junior Filip Korowasjski that found the back of the net. It was the junior defender’s second goal of the season.
Pomona closes out its season with league games against Lakewood, Ralston Valley and Chatfield over the next week.