LAKEWOOD — Dakota Ridge girls lacrosse team’s appearance in the quarterfinals of the state tournament a year ago set a precedent for the future.
Dakota Ridge lost to three-time defending state champion Colorado Academy in the quarterfinals last season to put a close on the most successful season for Dakota Ridge’s girls lacrosse program with a 15-2 record.
“This year more of my goal has been to take this team to the playoffs and show that even losing seven or eight seniors Dakota Ridge still has a name and something to show,” Dakota Ridge coach Jordan Hogan said of 2018 campaign for the Eagles.
Dakota Ridge senior Kailee Lammers, right, spins away from Evergreen freshman Carly Poole. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Dakota Ridge (7-5, 4-1 in Jeffco League) took another step Thursday toward securing a postseason berth. Dakota Ridge defeated an up-and-coming Evergreen team 13-9 at Trailblazer Stadium.
It wasn’t as easy Jeffco League victory for the Eagles. The Cougars (9-3, 3-3) had an impressive first half offensively pouring in eight goals. Evergreen freshman Margo Miller led the way with five first-half goals.
Evergreen got goals from junior Lily Mott and senior Jordan Russell in the final minute of the first half to cut Dakota Ridge’s lead to 9-8 at halftime.
“I really was surprised,” Dakota Ridge sophomore Tia Krats admitted of Evergreen’s solid play in the first half. “In the past years we’ve played them they haven’t been as good, but they have a really good freshmen class this year. They really surprised us.”
Hogan made sure her team knew it had to play as a team defensively in the second half to avoid the upset.
“It was scary,” Hogan said of the first half. “I literally told them we were playing one-on-one defense out there and we had to play defense as a team if we were even going to come close to beating this team.”
Dakota Ridge sophomore Tia Krats, right, races past Evergreen senior Evelyn Alby on Thursday at Trailblazer Stadium. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)
Dakota Ridge buckled down defensively in the second half. Mott scored the lone goal for the Cougars in the second half with a goal with 3:30 left to play.
Krats had a pair of goals as the Eagles began to pull away in the second half. Junior Lauren Tobey and senior Kailee Lammers each had goals as the Eagles outscored the Cougars 4-1 in the second half to take the win. Lammers and Krats had four goals each for Dakota Ridge.
“We have really been focusing on our defense because we have a really young defense this year,” Krats said. “It has gotten a lot better through the season.”
The Eagles were 10th in the RPI standings to start the day. The seven conference champions and next 13 top teams in the RPI will make up the 20-team field for the state tournament that will begin the second week of May.
Despite a solid over record, Evergreen is currently on the outside looking in when it comes to the playoffs. The Cougars were 25th in the RPI standings before the loss to Dakota Ridge
Dakota Ridge closes out its regular season with games against Golden (Saturday, April 28) and Ralston Valley (Tuesday, May 1). Both games will be at Trailblazer Stadium.
Evergreen faces rival Conifer in a non-league game on the Lobos’ home field at 6 p.m. Wednesday, May 2. The Cougars wrap up their regular season against Ralston Valley on Saturday, May 5.
Evergreen freshman Margo Miller fires in one of her five first-half goals Thursday at Trailblazer Stadium. (Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)