(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)
COMMERCE CITY — Jefferson Academy’s Eric Strauss was terrific in regulation. But Kent Denver’s Ross Rainaldi was clutch in penalty kicks.
Which means Kent Denver is champion once again.
The Sun Devils (19-0-1 overall) battled back from 1-0 and 2-1 deficits to get the game into extra time. They got the game into penalty kicks where they edged Jefferson Academy 4-2 to claim the Class 3A boys soccer state title for the third consecutive season.
“We never worried about going down,” Rainaldi said. “We know we’re the better team. It’s just an incredible team to be a part of. We always keep each other up and I think we play better when we’re down a goal.”
So if that’s the case, Kent decided it need to play better about 12 minutes into the game. Brandon Leeper got the Jaguars (16-4) on the board, stunning the Sun Devils crowd. In the previous meeting between these two teams, Jefferson Academy was unable to find the net even once in the 1-0 loss.
But here they led.
Kent Denver finally found life in the 20th minute on a goal from David Felman. He sat in front of the net and it was Spencer Thomas who controlled the ball near the goal line and slipped it back to Fellman in the slot.
But the celebration was short-lived.
Only 43 seconds later, Leeper once again found himself in position and buried his shot to regain the lead for the Jaguars.
“I think we had the possession most of the game and we had most of the chances,” Fellman said. “They had some pretty incredible goals, but they weren’t getting all the chances. We were the team giving all the effort. We were the ones playing as hard as we could.”
But there was no questioning Strauss’ effort. For all the chances that Kent was getting, it was Strauss who kept swatting the ball away and keeping his team in the game.
“We said we had to be patient,” Kent Denver coach Arty Smith said. “We had our opportunities in the first half. We were confident that if we were patient and kept our composure, some of our opportunities would fall.”
It didn’t take long for him to be right. Rawson Welch found Fellman less than three minutes into the second half to pull even at 2-2.
Despite opportunities from both sides, neither team was able to break the tie and the game went into extra time.
And the story continued in the additional 30 minutes. Both sides had chances, but neither was able to totally capitalize on them.
Bringing home the state championship trophy was going to come down to who was better in penalty kicks, which was something Smith was not expecting.
“It wasn’t until the second overtime that I actually made my list of 11 guys who would shoot,” he said. “I didn’t think it would get there.”
Led by Fellman, the Sun Devils connected on their first three shots as Strauss was unable to bat any of them away.
But that wasn’t the case for Rainaldi. He made two big saves to put his team up 3-1.
Kile Kelly was able to get one by Rainaldi to close the gap to 3-2, but Mason Saeed put one final shot by Strauss and the Sun Devils turned to celebration mode.
“We didn’t want to go to PKs, to be honest,” Fellman said. “They’re a great, well-coached team, but PKs is a 50/50 chance. Everybody stepped up today.”
And the results showed that. For the juniors and seniors on the team, it was the third straight time they came away as champions. They have turn Kent Denver boys soccer into a dynasty.
(Dan Mohrmann/CHSAANow.com)