COLORADO SPRINGS – Maleia Lark’s goal with 7:31 left in the first half proved to be the game-winner as No. 3 St. Mary’s beat Coal Ridge 4-1 in the 3A girls soccer playoffs Wednesday night.
But it was Jordan Curley’s shot from about 25 yards out that broke the spirit of the Titans and allowed the Pirates to play ball control offense in the second half as they advanced to Saturday’s semifinals.
“We’ve had some fast starts, but in the last three or four games against quality opponents we’ve had slow starts where we’ve had to counter attack,” St. Mary’s coach Gregg Braha. “I thought for a while it was a little sluggish, we were trying to possess the ball.”
Neither team was able to solidify control early in the match. The Pirates were able to control possession more, but it was Coal Ridge that was creating more opportunities to get on the scoreboard first.
The best chance came when midfielder Paige Ryan turned a steal into a fast break. She passed the ball up to forward Amanda Wenzel who was able to get back to Ryan who was crashing the net. Ryan’s shot was successfully defended by St. Mary’s keeper, Tess Thomas.
After that, neither offense appeared to find a rhythm until the 31st minute when the Pirates were finally able to get into the Titan’s zone and crowd the goal box. Michelle Moure’ took advantage of a rebound that fell right in front of her and drilled home a shot to give the Pirates a 1-0 lead.
“Honestly, it was huge; it was at that point in the game where you had to score just to get some momentum going,” Moure’ said. “It definitely picked up or speed because we got a quick goal from Maleia (shortly) after.”
Less than two minutes after Moure’ broke the 0-0 tie, the Pirates found the goal again as Kylie Cleary found Lark with a crossing pass, allowing her to successfully put the ball past Titans’ keeper Brooke Esgar. With a 2-0 lead, the Pirates appeared to be in cruise control to move on to the state semifinals.
“I told the girls not to react, but to respond and there’s a difference there,” Titans’ coach Micah Herron said. “We got one quick back and for about eight to 10 minutes was our window to close on it.”
The Titans would finally get on the board with some fancy footwork from Ryan. With Coal Ridge on a breakaway Ryan was on the receiving end of a pass that she merely redirected ever so slightly, leaving Thomas off-balance and allowing the ball to get into the net. With just under three and a half minutes left in the first half, Coal Ridge had cut the Pirates lead in half.
But the momentum wouldn’t last long. With time running out in the first half the ball had rolled out of bounds with possession going to the Pirates. Curley threw the ball in and instantly received it back. Without hesitation she took aim at the goal and lofted the ball over Esgar’s head to score with 12.8 seconds left regaining a two-goal lead for St. Mary’s and putting the proverbial nail into the Titans’ coffin.
“I’m going to be honest, I was going for a cross,” Curley said. “I kind of saw the open far-post of the goal and decided to try for it and it went in.”
Emily Loof added one more goal for the Pirates with just under 10 seconds remaining to get the St. Mary’s crowd going and give them the 4-1 win and a berth in the semis. Should they win Saturday, they will play in the 3A state championship game at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Tuesday.
Jefferson Academy had one of the bigger jumps of the week, moving up to No. 3 in Class 3A. (Pam Wagner)
With the playoffs just around the corner, girls soccer seems to have a pretty clear picture. For now, anyway.
Not only did none of the No. 1 teams change this week, none of the three classes added a new team in this week’s CHSAANow.com rankings.
There were jumps here and there — Jefferson Academy went from No. 6 to No. 3 in 3A; Palmer Ridge from No. 10 to No. 8 in 4A — but most of the movement amounted to tinkering.
The No. 1 teams this week are Pine Creek (5A), Cheyenne Mountain (4A) and Colorado Academy (3A).
With the regular season ending on Friday, these will serve as the final rankings.
Liberty 13, Columbine 12, Monarch 3, Arvada West 2, Regis Jesuit 2, Boulder 1, Rangeview 1.
Dropped out
None.
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Cheyenne Mountain (10)
11-0-2
108
1
3-0-0
2
Broomfield (1)
11-1-1
97
2
3-0-0
3
Sand Creek
11-2-1
62
4
2-0-0
4
Battle Mountain
12-1-0
61
6
2-0-0
5
Lewis-Palmer
9-2-3
60
3
2-0-0
6
Niwot
11-2-0
40
8
1-1-0
7
Valor Christian
9-5-0
31
5
1-2-0
8
Palmer Ridge
7-4-1
28
10
1-0-1
9
Wheat Ridge
11-3-0
21
7
2-1-0
10
Englewood
11-0-1
16
9
2-0-1
Others receiving votes:
Pueblo Centennial 13, Green Mountain 12, Ponderosa 10, Air Academy 9, Skyview 8, Windsor 8, Silver Creek 7, Weld Central 6, Evergreen 4, Mead 2, Montrose 1, Skyline 1.
Dropped out
None.
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Colorado Academy (10)
10-3-0
118
1
3-0-0
2
St. Mary’s (1)
11-1-0
100
3
3-0-0
3
Jefferson Academy
11-2-0
80
6
3-0-0
4
Holy Family (1)
8-3-1
72
5
2-1-0
5
Kent Denver
8-4-1
71
2
1-1-0
6
Coal Ridge
13-1-0
64
4
1-1-0
7
Frontier Academy
8-2-2
39
7
2-1-0
8
The Academy
11-1-0
37
8
2-0-0
9
Faith Christian
9-4-0
18
9
2-1-0
10
St. Mary’s Academy
7-6-0
15
10
2-1-0
Others receiving votes:
The Classical Academy 12, Fountain Valley 7, Manitou Springs 7, Sterling 7, Roaring Fork 6, Alamosa 2, Basalt 2, SkyView Academy 2, Grand Valley 1, Liberty Common 1.
Pine Creek toppled No. 1 Mountain Vista last week. This week, the Eagles now occupy that No. 1 spot.
Pine Creek beat Mountain Vista 4-3 on the road last Friday. Monday, the Eagles got eight of the 11 first-place votes and amassed 111 overall points to become the new No. 1 team.
Mountain Vista didn’t drop far. The Golden Eagles are No. 2 this week, while Rock Canyon is No. 3. Fairview is No 4 and Fossil Ridge rounds out the top five.
Unbeaten Smoky Hill (No. 6) and Ralston Valley (No. 10) are newcomers to the 5A ranking this week.
In 4A, Cheyenne Mountain continued to lead the ranking. That poll added Palmer Ridge at No. 10.
3A, however, also got a new No. 1 team. Colorado Academy took over for Kent Denver, which went 1-1-1 last week. Kent dropped to No. 2.
The lone newcomer to the ranking was No. 10 St. Mary’s Academy, which beat Kent last week.
Columbine 17, Arvada West 11, Standley Lake 11, Brighton 10, Prairie View 9, Liberty 8, Regis Jesuit 5, Grandview 2, Greeley West 2, Rangeview 2, Boulder 1, Castle View 1, Fruita Monument 1.
Dropped out
Columbine (7), Arvada West (9).
Class 4A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Cheyenne Mountain (9)
8-0-2
99
1
1-0-1
2
Broomfield (1)
8-1-1
81
3
3-0-0
3
Lewis-Palmer
7-2-3
57
4
1-1-1
4
Sand Creek
9-2-1
47
2
0-1-1
5
Valor Christian
8-3-0
43
5
2-1-0
6
Battle Mountain
10-1-0
38
6
0-0-0
7
Wheat Ridge
9-2-0
36
8
2-0-0
8
Niwot
10-1-0
33
10
2-0-0
9
Englewood
9-0-0
28
9
2-0-0
10
Palmer Ridge
6-4-0
22
–
3-0-0
Others receiving votes:
Windsor 11, Evergreen 9, Pueblo Centennial 9, Glenwood Springs 7, Palisade 6, Longmont 4, Montrose 4, Skyview 4, Green Mountain 3, Silver Creek 3, Weld Central 3, Air Academy 2, Ponderosa 1.
Dropped out
Evergreen (7).
Class 3A
RK
TEAM
W-L
PTS
PVS
LW
1
Colorado Academy (6)
7-3-0
96
2
1-0-0
2
Kent Denver (3)
7-3-1
76
1
1-1-1
3
St. Mary’s
8-1-0
73
3
1-0-0
4
Coal Ridge (1)
12-0-0
62
5
2-0-0
5
Holy Family
6-2-1
57
4
1-1-0
6
Jefferson Academy
8-2-0
39
6
2-0-0
7
Frontier Academy
6-1-2
38
8
2-0-1
8
The Academy
9-1-0
21
9
3-0-0
9
Faith Christian
7-3-0
20
7
1-1-0
10
St. Mary’s Academy
5-5-0
19
–
3-0-0
Others receiving votes:
Evangelical Christian 12, Sterling 10, Denver Science & Tech 7, Manitou Springs 7, The Classical Academy 7, Liberty Common 4, Alamosa 3, Basalt 1, Fountain Valley 1, SkyView Academy 1.
Wild Card points help determine the postseason fields in 3A, 4A and 5A, with 4A and 5A also using them for seeding. Find a more detailed breakdown here.
Baseball’s Wild Card point standings for April 17 are below.
Broomfield moved up to No. 3 in the 4A girls soccer poll. (Pam Wagner)
Arvada West and Arapahoe both joined this week’s CHSAANow.com Class 5A girls soccer ranking.
A-West joined at No. 9, while Arapahoe is No. 10. Both teams went 3-0-0 last week.
Mountain Vista retained its spot atop the ranking, which makes sense considering the Golden Eagles are unbeaten and topped No. 2 Rock Canyon last week.
Rock Canyon remained at No. 2, Pine Creek stayed put at No. 3, and Fossil Ridge held at No. 4. Fairview rounds out the top 5.
The rankings’ other two No. 1 teams, Cheyenne Mountain (4A) and Kent Denver (3A), also stayed put this week.
Wild Card points help determine the postseason fields in 3A, 4A and 5A, with 4A and 5A also using them for seeding. Find a more detailed breakdown here.
Baseball’s Wild Card point standings for April 9 are below.
