It's championship week as the Colorado girls soccer playoffs is down to its final two days. Eight teams will compete in four games as the Colorado High School Activities Association will crown four state champions.
The state title games return to Dick's Sporting Goods Park for the first time since before the COVID-19 pandemic, and the atmosphere should provide a feeling of normalcy and a spark of adrenaline for the players, coaches and fans.
Below is an overview of all four championship games, which will begin Tuesday evening at the home of the Colorado Rapids.
Photo by Derek Regensburger
These two 5A powerhouses are no strangers to the championship stage, or even to each other. This will be the third time the Eagles and Wolves have met for the state title since 2015, with Grandview coming away with the win both times. Broomfield enters as the defending state champion, and knowing the Wolves have that edge in title games, the Eagles should have a bit of a chip on their shoulder when the game kicks off Wednesday. Combined, Grandview and Broomfield have won five of the past six 5A girls soccer titles.
Losses to
Valor Christian (Highlands Ranch) and
Ralston Valley (Arvada) put a halt to Broomfield's hopes for a perfect season, but that's never really been a necessity. The Eagles are simply heading out with the mindset that they have to score more goals than their opponents just once more time this season.
Reagan Kotschau should be a big factor in that. She had a tremendous start to the season, scoring 13 goals in the team's first eight games. Keeper
Dylan Drennan will come into the championship game battle tested as the Wolves needed overtime to beat both
Rock Canyon (Highlands Ranch) and
Columbine (Littleton) to advance to the championship game.
Twice this season, Grandview scored 10 goals in a single game. Heading into the championship game, the Wolves have scored only 48 goals all season, meaning they have had some good battles and close calls. That includes the postseason where, like Broomfield, they have gone to overtime twice and somehow come away with a win.
Naomi Clark has been the crucial piece of the offense with her team-high 17 goals.
Isabel Dillehay has a team-high eight assists, and her ability to get teammates in a position to score will also be crucial. Keeper
Jordan Nytes has turned away 73 shots this season and needs to be on point if the Wolves are going to win their third title in the past four seasons.
Class 4A // Brackets
The 4A championship will feature some avenue of redemption, regardless of which team comes away as the winner. The Wizards went into the 2021 tournament as the No. 4 seed before dropping a heartbreaker to eventual state champion
Holy Family (Broomfield), and Northfield came in as the No. 15 and just wasn't quite ready for the big stage yet. The Nighthawks fell 2-0 to
Evergreen in the first round. They got some payback in the quarterfinals this season when they beat the No. 2 Cougars 3-0 to show how much they have grown as a team in the past year. No matter which team wins the title, it will complete a great comeback story that began a year ago.
Ella Moody had provided the bulk of the offense early in the season for the top-seeded Wizards. She scored 11 goals in the first nine games, which helped set the tone for Windsor early. The two losses on the team's record both came against solid 5A programs. Windsor lost 5-0 to Broomfield to start the season then got edged out by
Fossil Ridge (Fort Collins) 1-0 on April 22. Beyond that, the Wizards have looked very much like a team poised to win its second state championship.
Northfield has yet to suffer a loss this season and has no plans in starting now. The only game the Nighthawks haven't won all season was a scoreless tie against Fossil Ridge on March 24. Freshman
Ariah Velasquez has an opportunity to become a household name for the next three years. She led Northfield with 28 goals this season, and that includes the one goal they scored in the semifinal win over
Durango. On the back end, another freshman has stood out as keeper as
Chloe Rhodes has allowed just four goals all season. A win for Northfield could be the start of a memorable stretch for the program thanks to these two underclassmen.
Class 3A // Brackets
Photo by Cynthia Betancourt
The Sun Devils and Jaguars have been tagged as the top two teams in the state for most of the season, so it's only natural they would square off with the 3A title on the line. This will be a rematch of last year's semifinals where Kent Denver battled to a 2-1 win and eventually went on to win the sixth state championship in program history. They met in a league game on May 6, where Kent Denver came away with a 2-0 win, so Jefferson Academy comes into Dick's Sporting Goods Park with a lot of payback in mind.
The Sun Devils have a solid offensive front with two players who have each scored at least 33 goals this season.
Izzy Newton has the team lead with 37, one of which came against Jefferson Academy earlier in the year.
Maria Romo-Nichols has buried 33 shots into opposing nets and scored the other goal in the win over the Jags. The key to this game could be the keeper play of
Claire Welch. She has been a wall the entire postseason and hasn't given up a single goal since April 18.
The semifinals provided the Jags with a ton of confidence. They had fallen to
Colorado Academy (Denver) 2-0 on April 8 and were able to rebound and come away with a 1-0 semifinals rematch win to advance to the state title game. Now they just have one more revenge dish to serve out. The scoring numbers aren't as gaudy as Kent Denver's, but Jefferson Academy has certainly been efficient when needed.
Gianna Gagliano has a team-high 16 goals and has also dished out 10 assists.
AllieJo Kirkpatrick has chipped in 16 goals and has a team-high 12 assists. Slowing down the Sun Devils, however, might fall on the midfield and the backline, which means players like
Nicole Sinclair and
Morgan Potts will have to play the best games of their season.
Class 2A // Brackets
Dawson has a chance to claim a second straight 2A title after getting a thrilling 3-2 win over No. 1
Denver Christian in the semifinals. Crested Butte advanced to the title game with a comfortable 4-0 win over
Lamar in the semifinals. This is the first time that Dawson and Crested Butte have met since the 2019 2A semifinals where the Mustangs beat the Titans 5-1. Dawson fell to Denver Christian in that year's state title game.
Dawson has been riding the wave of a solid freshman year from
Kanoe Bihag. She leads the Mustangs with 32 goals and has been held to fewer than two goals in a single game just once prior to the semifinals. That came in a May 7 win over
Lotus School For Excellence (Aurora). Junior
Madison Shaw has also been solid offensively with 29 goals. The duo makes for a solid front line, which is always a good thing to have in a state title game.
Crested Butte started the season dropping four straight games but has rebounded nicely. The Titans' only loss after that stretch was the regular season finale against
Telluride. They edged out their first two state tournament wins, beating
Buena Vista 3-2 and
Fountain Valley (Colorado Springs) 1-0 before getting that comfortable four-goal win over Lamar.
Maddie Bogard and
Leigh Harpel share the team lead in goals with 16 each.
Mara Pennie has turned away 122 shots as the keeper this season and has to be at her best to slow down Dawson's impressive offense.
