AURORA — The Class 5A girls soccer championship is set with Mountain Vista and Arapahoe facing off Wednesday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
The Golden Eagles beat Grandview in penalty kicks, while the Warriors jumped on Broomfield early for a 2-0 win.
Mountain Vista moves into title game with penalty kick win
(Cannon Casey/CHSAANow.com)
80 minutes weren’t enough. 95 minutes weren’t enough. 110 minutes weren’t enough.
Mountain Vista’s Shelby Unruh stepped up to the penalty kick line tied at 3-3. Unruh eyed the net and drilled the ball into the lower-left corner and send the Golden Eagles into the Class 5A girls soccer championship.
“This going to sound crazy, but when I used to play (youth soccer), we had this super young coach that was just out of college,” Unruh said. “He told us, ‘I love PKs because that’s the one time everybody is just watching you.’ His whole thing was, when you play, you put on a show for everybody that’s out there, and I just think about putting on a show for everybody when I step out there.”
Mountain Vista won the 5A semifinal game between two perennial girls soccer powerhouses 0-0 (4-3 penalty kicks) to move into Wednesday’s title game at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
“It’s such a relief,” Unruh said. “It’s so much fun to hear it hit the back of the net and know that your teammates and you put in the work to get there.”
Mountain Vista’s freshman goalie Baileigh Baker stoned the Grandview offense throughout the entire game.
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Then, in penalty kicks, she let the first two shots go in.
“I knew they would probably go to the left side, so I moved to my left, but they kept going to my right,” Baker said. “I knew I had to make a change.”
And so she did. Baker made two huge saves, setting Unruh up for the game-winner.
“Our starter is hurt and I had to come in for playoffs. It was very nerve-racking,” Baker said. “I thought, just save the ball. Read the ball.”
A defensive, grind-it-out battle was expected, and the teams did not stray from expectation. All season, Mountain Vista allowed more than one goal just once. Grandview had two games where its opponent scored twice.
“You look at Grandview and Mountain Vista, they have that tradition and that belief,” Mountain Vista coach Theresa Echtermeyer said. “You know that both teams are going to dig deep and keep going no matter what. Definitely some missed opportunities on both sides. I think it was a matter of resilience to just keep going.”
This semifinal matchup was a rematch of a March 14 game in which Mountain Vista won 2-1 in comeback fashion. Katie Harris and Taeya Schueppert put two second-half goals into the back of the net that shocked Grandview.
Grandview started season with two straight losses and went on to win 14 of 16 games.
It was also a rematch of the 2016 championship game which Grandview won 2-1. Grandview also won the title in 2015. Mountain Vista last won the girls soccer championship in 2013.
The game was filled with missed opportunities that would have allowed either team to grab momentum.
“You look throughout the playoffs, there’s been a lot of close games,” Echtermeyer said. “Any team can win on any given day. I just think today our kids were really focused from the first minute to the last second of the game. They found a way to win.”
About midway through the second half, Baker made a diving, one-handed save with her outstretched hand after Morgan Szarka worked her way on net to keep the game at zeros.
“Bailey was fantastic,” Echtermeyer said. “This is the second time we’ve had to go to penalty kicks in the tournament. She made huge saves. It’s a special moment for her.”
Grandview goalie Reagan McCombs had her own diving save on a shot from deep by Savannah Mills.
Just before the first half came to a close, Mountain Vista had a real chance on goal. McCombs made the save and the teams went scoreless into halftime.
10 minutes into the second half, Unruh crossed a ball in that bounced off a player and hung in the air in front of goal. The Golden Eagles were unable to get a foot on it and the Wolves cleared the chance.
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Mountain Vista’s Taeya Schueppert took a shot at the far post from inside the box, but it was wide right.
Schueppert drilled a free kick with seven minutes to play that bounced off of McCombs into the box. The shot off the rebound was saved.
Grandview’s Kacy Johnston saw her shot go off the post on a cross from Natalie Beckman.
Beckman later launched a corner kick into the box and found the head of Allie Zerr in front of the net, but the ball grazed off the crossbar.
Mills again took a shot in the 65th minute that sailed just over the crossbar.
Beckman went streaking down the sideline and earned a corner kick. Kacy Johnston took the corner and found a head, but the ball popped up and went out of bounds.
In overtime, both teams saw multiple shots sail past the goal.
The only shots getting past the keepers on Saturday were penalty kicks. And that’s where Unruh stepped up to put on a show.
Arapahoe continues Cinderella run into 5A championship
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Arapahoe’s Danielle Babb found herself with the ball and nobody in front of her as she went one-on-one with the goalie, juked right, and tapped it in to give the Warriors a lead less than three minutes into the Class 5A girls soccer semifinals.
“First goals in a tight match like this are always huge. Given who our opponents are and given the type of play that Broomfield is capable of, we knew that wasn’t enough,” Arapahoe coach Mark Hampshire said. “We had to play great defense. If our team plays great defense, the studs that we have up high are going to make something happen. That’s something that we’ve preached: great team defense. Then let our great athletes do their job.”
And then Babb iced the game with 26 minutes left in the game — this time with a header to the far side of the goal.
“That calmed us down and we didn’t have to stress out about anything,” Babb said. “We focused together and pulled through.”
Babb and Arapahoe aren’t supposed to be here. But they are.
“It was a huge team effort together. We all believed to get here,” Babb said. “We worked as hard as we could and stayed focused. That’s how we won together. We knew that as long as we worked hard together we would get to the top.”
Arapahoe is the lowest seeded team to make it to the final since Fairview did it as a 15-seed in 2012.
“I don’t really care what we’re ranked,” Arapahoe goalie Grace Caddorette said. “We just play to play. I know we’re a good team and I know we can win it all.”
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Broomfield had its chances as Jessie Mooney was awarded a free kick from about 25 yards out. Mooney bent the free kick over the wall, but Caddorette was there with a diving save to preserve Arapahoe’s lead at 1-0.
Caddorette was huge all day, making clutch saves on big time opportunities.
“Grace is an amazing athlete. She’s a youngster, but she’s not green,” Hampshire said. “She’s a competitive kid. She stepped in and was huge. Absolutely huge. Keepers have to be that way this time of year.”
And again Caddorette made a fingertip save off of a Mooney corner kick that found a head.
“Just play like we’ve been playing and it’ll all come back,” Caddorette said. “Especially for our seniors. I just want to leave them with a good memory since I’m only a sophomore. I want to set up the rest of my years of high school.”
Broomfield got a shot on goal from Hailey Stodden that was deflected by Caddorette off the crossbar and out of play.
Caddorette also deflected a pass across the box intended for an Eagle striker that surely would have been a goal.
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“It was a little scary because I almost feel like I’m not used to playing at this level,” Caddorette said. “I trust my backs enough and know I have to be ready. They save me so many times, so it’s only fair to save them too.”
The Warriors are now 15-4-0, and have won six straight games.
They’ve carried that momentum deep into the tournament.
“We’ve had a playoff gameplan and it’s worked,” Hampshire said. “It always feels great to go to the show. I have the utmost respect for (Broomfield coach) Jim Davidson, he’s probably the best coach in the state. He’s got a class group of girls who always come out ready to play. Our girls have been training and training and training, and the leadership on this team has been outstanding.”