Among the highlights of this week’s Colorado Preps boys soccer report is Skyline enjoying its return to Class 4A. Legacy continues to shine in 5A, the 3A Metro League is as strong as ever and Dawson is surging in 2A.
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Class 4A
The Longmont program Skyline was absent from the state postseason the last two years in the 5A classification.
But now, as if it never left their storied success in 4A, the Falcons are back among the top teams in the class.
After winning just twice during the pandemic spring season, longtime coach Luis Chavez’s team followed with a 7-7-1 campaign last fall. It required an ending run of three wins and a draw to reach .500, an unbeaten streak that has yet to be broken.
The Falcons, who had nine straight winning seasons in 4A before briefly moving to 5A last year (spring and fall), are back in their comfort spot, winners of five straight to start 2022.
Last week, they beat Holy Family 3-1 despite not getting a point from their star junior Brian Heredia, who had six goals over the previous three games. In doing so, they moved up from sixth to third in this week’s CHSAANow.com coach’s poll.
Next, they face No. 6 Silver Creek at Everly-Montgomery Field later Tuesday night.
The Raptors (3-2) started the season with three consecutive wins — the last of which against then-5A No. 1 Fairview — but since have dropped two in a row against other Front Range League teams in 5A No. 4 Boulder and Horizon.
Elsewhere in 4A, Durango jumped to the front of the top-10 rankings thanks to a 7-0 start.
The Demons beat Grand Junction Central and Grand Junction a combined 12-0 last week. Reigning Southwestern League player of the year Cedar Newman has seven goals and four assists.
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Class 5A
No. 1 Legacy, a state semifinalist from a season ago, hasn’t allowed a goal through its first four wins of the season.
Star senior forward Cooper Stephens recorded a hat trick in a 4-0 win over Aurora Central last week in helping push the Lightning’s season goal differential to 10.
Keeper Wesley Hempelmann added three saves, moving his scoreless streak this season to 285 minutes in net.
Legacy was the only No. 1 in the state to hold its top ranking in the CHSAA coach’s poll this week as classes 4A, 3A and 2A all had movement.
Behind it in 5A, Valor Christian moved from third to second while beating Cherokee Trail and Legend over the past week.
Those Eagles travel to face No. 3 Broomfield Thursday. Yosef Nunez scored his fourth goal for the FRL power in a 2-0 win over Holy Family Saturday.
Elsewhere, Liberty (behind classification goal leader Caden Hickox) is making a strong bid to break into the top 10.
The Lancers (5-1), currently the fourth team out, beat Sand Creek and Palmer Ridge last week on the strength of nine goals from Hickox. The junior has 13 goals on the year.
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Class 3A
The top two teams in the classification, Colorado Academy and Jefferson Academy, lost to 4A competition late last week.
The Mustangs fell 3-0 at home to The Classical Academy despite an eight-save performance from keeper Matthew Kintzele Saturday. The Jaguars lost 2-1 on a 79th minute goal from Centaurus’ Alejandro Arellano Thursday.
Those pair of losses mean 2A’s current top-10 has only two unblemished teams: Defending champ Roaring Fork (2-0) at No. 4 and The Academy (5-0) at 9.
The Rams, who started their season well after most other teams in the state, beat Colorado Rocky Mountain and Gunnison in their first two games last week. Junior Foster Hayes already has four goals and four assists.
Roaring Fork will next face No. 3 Coal Ridge Thursday afternoon. Among other things, it will look to slow down Ezra Williams, who has scored in each of the Titans’ first four games (3-0-1), totaling five on the year.
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Class 2A
After suffering its first losing season since 2015 last fall, Dawson has put itself back among the top teams in the classification.
The No. 8 Mustangs (in Year 2 with coach John Welsch) have scored 17 goals through three wins to open the season. Maybe even more impressive, 14 of those have come from underclassmen. The other three, by junior Nathan Duckett.
Last week, Dawson beat Beth Eden Baptist and Rocky Mountain Lutheran a combined 11-1. Freshman Isaiah Tu had a pair of goals in each win.
The new-No. 1 in the class, meanwhile, is the Thomas MacLaren School. Through three games, the Highlanders have wins over No. 3 Denver Christian, No. 5 Heritage Christian and No. 7 Loveland Classical.
Behind them, Vail Mountain dropped to No. 2 after losing to 3A No. 3 Coal Ridge Saturday.
Denver Christian is up a spot after winning three times last week, outscoring teams 21-1.
Back-to-back champs Crested Butte is fourth as reigning 2A player of the year Jacob Bernholtz scored his team-leading 11th goal of the season in a win over 2019 2A champ Ridgway Saturday.
