PUEBLO — Dawson School won the Class 2A baseball state championship with a win against Limon on Sunday.
[divider]
[WPS_photo_gallery id=”681″]
Tag: Dawson School
-
Vail Mountain repeats as 2A girls soccer champion, beating Dawson
Vail Mountain repeated as the 2A girls soccer champion. More photos. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com) COMMERCE CITY — For the second year in a row, Vail Mountain captured the Class 2A girls soccer championship.
In 2015, the 2A tournament’s inaugural year, Vail Mountain won 2-1. This time around, the margin wasn’t so close, with the Gore Rangers executing a 7-0 shutout on Tuesday.
“We brought our work rate up to a whole different level,” said coach Bob Bandoni. “We were very quick to recover on counter-attacks, something Dawson is very good at. We made sure we had pressure on the ball as soon as we could. When we would get the ball back, we were shaped up pretty well for the goal.”
Earlier this May, Dawson traveled to Vail and beat the Gore Rangers on their home turf, 3-2. Less than a month later, it was a whole different game. The defending champions took a commanding lead in the first half, scoring five goals in forty minutes.
In their regular season matchup, Dawson went up 3-0 before Vail Mountain tallied two. Vail Mountain’s goals Tuesday gave them nine unanswered against Dawson between the two games.
Six players got on the scoreboard for the Gore Rangers, with two goals coming from freshman Anwyn Urquhart, a feat now sophomore Tess Johnson accomplished in her first championship game last year.
On Tuesday, Johnson has one assist and one goal.
More photos. (Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com) Vail Mountain possessed the ball for the majority of the game. The Rangers were in perfect position for each of their through balls that fed from the midfield.
The first few shots were either wide or stopped, but it was only a short delay in a pummeling of power and speed to the back of the net for the rest of the game.
Dawson finally got its first shot on goal at the 22-minute mark, when lead scorer Hannah Isenhart snuck one through the Vail Mountain defense. The junior continued to move her way through the Vail Mountain lineup with solid lead passes and dribbling, but nothing could get close enough to the goal.
The first of seven for the Gore Rangers came from sophomore Emma Hall, who got open left and popped it right, over the charging Dawson goalie. Less than a minute later, Johnson replicated the goal from the opposite side.
Junior Lindsey Peterson added the third when she broke the defense and ran past the goalie for an open shot. With 20 seconds remaining in the first half, a corner from Vail Mountain slipped in, giving the Gore Rangers all the more momentum to run into halftime.
In the second, the game remained at Vail Mountain’s feet, with two goals from Urquhart in the first two minutes.
“We practiced moving the ball quickly, switching enough to tire them,” Urquhart said. “It allowed us to play the sides, get to the endlines and push the ball in. It also made them run a lot more, which made it easier on us.”
Junior Sidney Sappenfield added the last one in the final 15 minutes. Sappenfield was the oldest to score for her team, a team with as young a lineup as last year’s winning squad.
In their three game playoff stretch, Vail Mountain allowed only one goal and scored 18.
Speed and positioning for the No. 2-seeded team took over to complete the high-scoring upset over the top team No. 1 Dawson.
The 100-mile journey from the mountains landed them their third-ever school championship, second girls soccer title, and sets them aside as the only ever 2A girls soccer champions.
-
Photos: Vail Mountain repeats as 2A girls soccer champ
COMMERCE CITY — Vail Mountain won the Class 2A girls soccer championship on Tuesday, successfully defending its crown.
[divider]
[WPS_photo_gallery id=”675″]
-
Faith Christian inches closer to 3A baseball title
Faith Christian is the lone remaining unbeaten team in 3A baseball. More photos. (Matt Mathewes/MVPSportsPics.com) A four-run first inning got things going and Faith Christian never looked back.
The Eagles only needed five innings to get a 14-4 win over Manitou Springs on Saturday, sending them into next weekend with the Class 3A baseball championship in their sights.
Faith Christian is scheduled to face University on Friday. With a win, the Eagles will have to be beaten twice for anyone else to claim the state title.
Manitou Springs and Kent Denver will be the other 3A game on Friday. The loser of that game will be eliminated from the state tournament.
If Faith Christian falls to University, the winner of the Kent/Manitou game will play University in another elimination game, with that winner moving on to face the Eagles for the 3A title. Kent Denver fought off elimination earlier in the day with a 14-1 win over St. Mary’s.
University edged Lamar 5-4 in an elimination game right after the Savages had eliminated defending 3A champion Eaton.
[divider]
Class 2A
Dawson School 13, Dayspring Christian 3
Dawson School cruised into the 2A state semifinals with a 13-3 win over Dayspring Christian on Saturday.
The Mustangs will play at 10 a.m. Saturday at Andenuccio Field in Pueblo for a chance to move on to the 2A state title game.
Sedgwick County 7, Resurrection Christian 4
After getting upset a year ago, Sedgwick County is one game away from playing for a state championship.
The Cougars beat Resurrection Christian 7-4 Saturday and will face Dawson school in the 2A semifinals next weekend.
-
Valor Christian boys lacrosse wins 4A championship with late goal
(Ryan Casey/CHSAANow.com) DENVER — Lance Tillman held his stick up and swiped a championship.
The Valor Christian freshman pulled off a key steal late in the Class 4A boys lacrosse title game, and turned it into what proved to be the winning goal moments later. It gave the Eagles a 10-9 win over Dawson, and secured the program’s first-ever state championship.
With just under two-and-a-half minutes to play in a tied game, Dawson goalie Chad Dunnell made a save and looked to start the Mustangs’ offense with an outlet pass. But Tillman hung around for a moment and put his stick up with one hand to try and deflect the pass. Instead, he caught it, and found the net with a quick flick of the wrist.
“You don’t usually do that, but I just decided to,” Tillman said afterward. “I got lucky, honestly.”
The Eagles held off a man-down situation in the final minute, and secured the 10-9 win.
“It’s been a crazy year,” said Valor Christian coach John Grant Jr.
The season started with high expectations — and why not? The Eagles had been runner-up a season ago, returned a lot of experience, and so they opened as the No. 2 team in the CHSAANow.com preseason poll.
Valor also beat a 5A team in a scrimmage, so just prior to the season, “We were thinking, ‘Sky’s the limit,’” Grant said. “We thought we were headed somewhere.”
But Valor began the season 0-3, and soon dropped out of the rankings.
“We weren’t really clicking as a team,” Tillman said.
The team went on a retreat to try and improve chemistry.
“We were searching for a new identity,” Grand said. “I was questioning my coaching ability. There was so much going on.
“We went on a retreat and we went and try to figure some stuff out, and try to meld everyone together and the personalities and egos,” the coach added. “Guys were worried about getting committed. I ripped last year’s silver medal poster down, I took last year’s jersey down. I said, ‘No more looking in the past, no more looking forward. We’re going to focus on this year.’ Slowly, we started getting momentum.”
Valor went 11-1 to close the regular season, losing only to Dawson in April. But more adversity struck: Two weeks ago, goalie Logan Lee had his appendix burst.
“We never thought he was going to get back in,” Grant said. “He got cleared on Tuesday, played a little bit on Wednesday night (in the semifinals) — got three saves to even get us to this game — and then literally holds off the highest-scoring offense in 4A by a long shot.”
Lee made a number of crucial saves in Friday’s win, including in the final minutes with his team clinging to a one-goal lead.
The game was close throughout, with 19 ties or lead changes between the two teams. Neither team was able to build a two-goal margin.
Dawson’s Gavyn Pure had an outstanding night with five goals, while Tillman led Valor Christian with three — including two in the fourth quarter.
-
Photos: Valor Christian wins 4A boys lacrosse title
DENVER — Lance Tillman scored the game winner as Valor Christian beat Dawson School 10-9 to claim the Class 4A boys lacrosse championship Friday night.
[divider]
[WPS_photo_gallery id=”666″]
-
Valor Christian, Dawson to meet for 4A boys lacrosse championship
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com) HIGHLANDS RANCH — Valor Christian is headed to the Class 4A boys lacrosse state title game after a narrow win over Air Academy in Wednesday’s semifinals.
Freshman Lance Tillman scored the game winner with 59 seconds remaining to give the Eagles (14-4 overall) a 15-13 win over the Kadets.
“It was the best feeling in the world, honestly,” Tillman said. “I was so happy for the all the hard work the team put in and for us to go out and get the win.”
But it was a fight to the very end.
Air Academy (11-7) couldn’t possess the ball the way they wanted to with the way that Eric Pacheco was controlling the face-offs for the Eagles, but they still managed to build a 7-4 lead in the second quarter.
Led by Grayson Goodyear and Cole Baker, Valor was able to fight back and take a 8-7 lead into halftime. Even after giving up the run, the Kadets didn’t feel phased.
“At halftime I just said ‘guys, we’re in this game. Don’t shut down now,’” John Mandico said. “And we didn’t. We turned it around; we turned the momentum.”
With the Eagles leading 11-8, senior attacker Jake Thornally scored three quick goals for the Kadets to tie the game. He led the Kadets with eight goals.
Valor was able to regain the lead twice, but Thornally always had the answer and seemed unstoppable at one point.
“Every time I got (the ball) on my stick, I wanted to pull the trigger,” Thornally said. “I was feeling it today, just connecting with my shots. I don’t know, you just get off on a tangent sometimes and feel like you can put on the back of the net and luckily I was able to do that today.”
With just under a minute left, Tillman scored to make a 14-13 game and the Kadets went into their last possession a man down due to a penalty. Thornally had the ball and during an attempt to kick it up to the point, the pass was intercepted. The Eagles were able to connected on more goal, sending them to Friday’s title game at Sports Authority Field.
“That team came. Wow,” Eagles coach John Grant Jr. said. “That was not the same team that we saw a month or so ago.”
The Eagles will see Dawson School in the championship game. In the regular season, the Mustangs beat the Eagles 14-11.
[divider]
(1) Dawson 15, (5) Cheyenne Mountain 6
(Photo courtesy of Kris Roberts) Jesse Rosenblatt scored five goals while Hunter and Wyatt Watts each connected on a hat trick to put the Dawson into the 4A boys lacrosse championship game.
Like in their regular season matchup, the Indians started strong by taking a 4-2 lead after the first quarter. But Dawson went on a huge offensive attack in the second, scoring eight goals and yielding nothing to Cheyenne Mountain.
Once the Mustangs had a strong 10-4 lead at the half, they were able to control the pace and keep the Indians dual scoring threat of Kai Case and August Johnson contained.
Dawson will see Valor Christian in the 4A title game. The Mustangs won the regular season showdown 14-11.
-
2A baseball regional and state tournament bracket
Baseball’s 2016 regional and state tournament bracket for Class 2A.
2016 CHSAA State Baseball Championships Class 2A regional/state bracket
The higher-seeded team is the home team through the championship.
-
Regis Jesuit, Dawson lead the way in boys state lacrosse brackets
Regis Jesuit heads the field as the No. 1 seed in 5A boys lacrosse. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com) The teams that were seen as the top dogs at the end of the boys lacrosse regular season will hold on to their distinctions in the 2016 state tournament.
Regis Jesuit earned the No. 1 overall seed in the Class 5A boys lacrosse bracket that was released Monday morning. Dawson assumes the top spot in the 4A bracket.
Defending 5A champion Cherry Creek lands at No. 4 with Mountain Vista and Arapahoe taking the Nos. 2 and 3 spots, respectively.
The Bruins, Raiders and Golden Eagles all advanced to last year’s Final 4. Kent Denver, the other Final 4 team from 2015, lands at No. 14 this year.
This year’s bracket sees three fresh faces as Palmer (No. 10), Chaparral (No. 13) and Legend (No. 16) all made it into this year’s tournament after failing to qualify last year.
First round games for the 2016 5A state lacrosse tournament will be played on Wednesday.
Click here for the full 5A boys state lacrosse bracket.
[divider]
Dawson is the No. 1 seed in the 4A field. (Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com) After starting this season 0-3 Valor Christian won 11 of their final 12 games to play up to the No. 2 seed. Following the Eagles are Conifer at No. 3, Windsor and No. 4 and Cheyenne Mountain at No. 5.
Defending champion Aspen lands at No. 11 and will face No. 6 Air Academy for its first round game.
Dawson School, Valor Christian and Cheyenne Mountain all joined Aspen in last year’s semifinals and with the layout of the bracket, it’s possible for all those teams to return to that point.
Like in 5A, there are three teams in this year’s bracket that did not qualify in 2015. Golden lands at No. 7, St. Mary’s is No. 8 and Vail Mountain is the No. 14 team.
First round games for the 4A tournament will be played on Tuesday.
-
No. 1 Dawson boys lacrosse battles back to beat No. 3 Conifer in double OT
Top-ranked Dawson boys lacrosse edged No. 3 Conifer in double OT on Wednesday. (Brie Thomas/CHSAANow.com) LAFAYETTE — A true battle test emerged between the No. 1 Dawson Mustangs and the No. 3 Conifer Lobos as each team left everything on the field on Wednesday.
The Mustangs (now 10-1, 4-0) were able to pull off a comeback win in double overtime, winning 12-11 over the Lobos (9-1, 4-1) in an important Class 4A Foothills Conference game.
The game started off with both teams playing great defense, causing turnovers and limiting the score to 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.
“It’s two really high-caliber teams both coming out,” Lobos coach Clint Frost said. “I don’t think anyone would have told you that it would be 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.”
Both teams were able to find their intensity in the second quarter, as Conifer kept inching closer and closer to Dawson. And finally all that intensity transitioned into goals, as the Lobos were able to take the lead in the third quarter, going up 9-8.
Conifer found itself winning ground ball after ground ball and continued to find the back of the net.
Sophomore Nick Williams scored three goals for Conifer, which helped extend the lead to three with just under four minutes remaining.
But little did they know that Dawson wasn’t ready to throw in the towel quite yet.
Dawson came back with three goals of its own to tie the game with 4.8 seconds left.
(Brie Thomas/CHSAANow.com) Gavyn Pure was pure gold for the Mustangs has he knocked in four goals, including the tying tally and the game-winning goal in overtime.
“That game was a lot of fun and intense, they are a really good team and we kind of lost our intensity but then we picked it up in the last three minutes,” Pure said after the game.
The Mustangs were out to prove to the Lobos why they are ranked No.1 in 4A and they did just that at the time they needed to the most.
“I’m just so proud of the guys, that was an unbelievable effort,” Dawson coach Peter Devlin after the crazy win. “Just the resilience they showed, it would have been so easy to pack it in when they went up by three with three-and-half minutes to go, but they didn’t. They just kept on trying.”
After Pure’s tying goal, the Mustang crowd began to get back into the game and the players began to feed off of their energy. And they needed all the energy they could get heading into the second overtime, still tied at 11 all.
One player in particular gave the Mustangs the glimmer of hope they needed for the win, as he was able to break through the double team and find Pure for the go head game winning goal.
“Wyatt Watts doesn’t get enough credit, that was a great pass, it’s hard to look when you’re getting double covered and I had the easy part, just put it in on a open goal,” Pure on his senior teammate. “You got to give Wyatt the credit there.”
And for Dawson this win was made possible by their brick wall of a goalkeeper Chad Dunnell as he had 23 saves, three of which came during the second overtime.
“Both overtimes our goalie made some huge saves, in that kind of pressure situation, I’m just so so happy for them,” Devlin said.
Both teams are looking forward to a potential rematch in the playoffs, but for now they will both have to keep pushing through the rest of their season in order to get there.