(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
HIGHLANDS RANCH — Strike first and strike often. That seemed to be the plan of attack for Mountain Vista boys lacrosse on Wednesday night.
The CHSAANow.com No. 3-ranked Golden Eagles showed they belong in the conversation as one of the best teams in the state with an impressive 14-3 over Rock Canyon.
But one win does not a contender make. If Mountain Vista truly wants to compete with the likes of a Cherry Creek or Regis Jesuit, they need to turn in more performances like their effort in Wednesday’s win.
“We have high expectations for the year,” Mountain Vista coach Jamie Munro said. “It doesn’t matter how good you think you are, you have to go out there, have some discipline and play as a team.”
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
It only took 36 seconds for the Golden Eagles (5-2 overall, 4-0 Douglas County) to get on the board as Griffin Bonjean fired a shot right by Jaguars (4-1, 0-1) goalie Erik Peters.
Colin Munro would make it a 2-0 lead just over three minutes later. In terms of ideal starts, Mountain Vista couldn’t have asked for a better one.
“We’re coming off a couple rough games with too many turnovers,” Munro said. “It was good for us to put a full game together on both ends of the field.”
Trailing 3-0 after the first quarter, Rock Canyon finally found the net thanks to Cooper McNeily, but overall they just weren’t able to break the Mountain Vista defense.
“We knew they were strong defensively,” Rock Canyon coach John Gallant said. “I think we had some good looks, we just didn’t take them.”
Every offensive possession for the Jaguars seemed stagnant and although they were patient in trying to find their shots, they simply weren’t getting enough openings throughout the game. And whatever shots they were able to fire off, Golden Eagles goalie Jonah Hirshorn was able to deflect them away.
“I thought it was a great moral builder for our defense today,” Hirshorn said. “We were in a two-game drought but today we scouted them real hard and came out guns blazing.”
With 29 seconds remaining in the first half, Jake Frane scored his second goal of the game to give Mountain Vista a 5-1.
Considering that Rock Canyon couldn’t make things happen on the handful of offensive possessions in the first half, the Golden Eagles went into halftime confident in their chances to come away with the win.
But that didn’t stop them from pressing the offensive attack in the second half. Jake Govett and Munro would add two more goals within a minute of each other, all but ending any hopes for the Jaguars to come back. Munro ended the game with five goals and two assists.
“We knew in the first half we had too many turnovers,” he said. “I told the guys I was going to be more careful with the ball (in the second half) and spread it around. Things started going well and we buried our shots.”
Next up for the Golden Eagles is a showdown with Douglas County on Friday. They’ll see Chaparral on Tuesday before starting a slate of non-league games that will include contests with Cherry Creek and Regis Jesuit.
Rock Canyon will try to rebound from the loss on Saturday when they travel to Colorado Academy.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)