Columbine girls soccer advances to 2nd round of the Class 5A state tournament

LAKEWOOD — On a rainy day across Colorado, it was only appropriate that Columbine senior Gracie Waters scored the game-winning goal Tuesday night at Lakewood Memorial Field.

Waters scored in the 9th minute of overtime in the opening round of the Class 5A girls soccer stadium tournament to give No. 12-seed Columbine a 2-1 victory over No. 21 Cherokee Trail.

“It was so surreal,” Waters said of her game-winning goal midway through the first 15-minute overtime session . “Mackenzie (McCoy) had a great cross. I was just like, ‘Let’s get to it.’ I hit it with my left. It kind of popped in.”

The center pass was perfect by the sophomore Mackenzie McCoy to the far post where Waters was able to run it down and drain the game-winning goal.

“I’m really proud of my team. I couldn’t have scored without them,” Waters said. “We all put the effort in at the end, but I don’t want to do that again. I want to win it early and not go into overtime.”

Columbine (10-3-3 record) is very familiar with low scoring and narrow victories this season. The Rebels have played 11 games that were decided by 1 goal or ended in a tie. All but one game — 5-0 victory over rival Chatfield — has featured 3 or less goals scored.

“We need to score more goals. We have been playing in tight games,” Columbine coach Brian Todd said. “We have a very strong defensive unit. We don’t give up a lot of goals, so you know you are always in it.”

The Rebels are still in the Class 5A state tournament advancing to the round of 16. Columbine will hit the road to face No. 5 Fossil Ridge on Friday, May 6, up in Fort Collins. The SaberCats took a 5-0 victory against No. 28 Arvada West on Tuesday night.

“I’m really proud of their efforts. We played really well in moments,” Todd said. “We grinded the thing out and found a way to score two goals to ultimately get the win.”

After a scoreless first half, Columbine took a 1-0 lead in the 45th minute on a direct free kick from junior Brynleigh Schmitz. Cherokee Trail (9-4-3) answered in the 57th minute with a goal by senior Isabelle Cruces Alcala.

“CT is a good team. They didn’t make it easy on us,” Water said of the Cougars.

It was the third straight victory for Columbine after suffering a heartbreaking 1-0 loss to Ralston Valley in what was the 5A Jeffco League championship game April 24. The Rebels got non-league wins over A-West and Valor Christian to enter the state tournament.

“It was the ‘prove it’ tournament for us,” Todd said of the Rebels defeating A-West and Valor during Jeffco’s Plus-2 tournament to end the regular season. “Ralston Valley did a good job finding away to beat us and win the league title. We were able to go out and prove it by winning those last two games.”

Tuesday was the second meeting this season between Cherokee Trail and Columbine. The Rebels took a 2-0 win over the Cougars on March 25 at Legacy Stadium.