LAKEWOOD — Things looked a little bleak for Dakota Ridge with under 9 minutes to play in the Class 4A boys lacrosse state quarterfinal Tuesday night at Trailblazer Stadium.
The No. 3-seeded Eagles trailed No. 6 Northfield 10-6 after Nighthawk senior Asher Poppleton scored with 8 minutes, 51 seconds left in regulation-time. It was the 5th unanswered goal for Northfield over a span of more than 10 minutes.
“We weren’t giving up,” Dakota Ridge sophomore Nolan Hartman said of the Eagles facing a 4-goal deficit in the final quarter. “The job isn’t finished.”
Hartman finished the job scoring the go-ahead and eventual game-winning goal with 43.7 seconds left in the game for a 12-11 victory for Dakota Ridge (15-2 record). Following an Eagle timeout after gaining possession, Dakota Ridge coach Dak Riecke pulled out his ‘secret’ play.
“It goes back to my childhood. We have a secret play called ‘The Annexation of Puerto Rico’ from the (movie) Little Giants,” Riecke said of the play drawn up for the game-winning goal. “It is all to get a couple of kids lost in the middle and he (Hartman) was one of the guys who we knew would get lost because they would be focusing on everyone else. They left him wide-open like we thought.”
Hartman cut down the left side of the field with the ball while being covered by Poppleton. Hartman cut back to the middle to create some space between Poppleton and rifled a shot past Nighthawk goalie Hunter Theil.
“I was just trusting my instincts there,” Hartman said of his lone goal in the game.
Northfield did get the ball back with the opportunity to send the game into overtime, but Dakota Ridge defenseman Noah Triplett was able to control the ball in front of Eagles’ goalie Logan Dobrowski and fired it down to the other end of the field.
Dakota Ridge killed the final seconds deep in Northfield’s own end and the Eagles’ bench stormed the field as the final horn sounded.
“The composure was amazing tonight,”Riecke said. “We preach family. The most important 4-letter word we talk about is love. Love yourself. Love your teammates. Love what you are doing. Love the game and it will repay you.”
Dakota Ridge advanced to the semifinal on Saturday, May 20, at the University of Denver where the Eagles face No. 2 Erie. The Tigers dominated No. 11 Telluride 19-4 in another quarterfinal Tuesday night.
“We were on that climb tonight to find Utopia tonight,” Riecke said. “We have a couple of games left. We are on that road and we needed this adversity going into Erie coming up. This was a great test to see that we won’t shutdown and we won’t give up.”
The Eagles scored six goals in the final 8:11 of the fourth quarter. Seniors Cameron Seymour and Colin Smith both had a pair of goals during the run. Sophomore Tyler Read also had a goal before Hartman ripped the game-winning goal into the back of the net.
Riecke gave credit to Dakota Ridge face-off man on grabbing the momentum to allow the Eagles to rally in the final quarter.
“Honestly, it all starts with Landon Kalsbeck in the face-off dot,” Riecke said of the Eagles grabbing momentum in the fourth quarter. “He is only a freshman, but I think he is one of the best face-off guys in the state.”