LAKEWOOD – It took nearly 84 minutes, but Lutheran finally got a shot by Mead keeper Bella Wright. A corner kick was deflected around the box before Adison Johnson got her head on the ball, which shot up and hit the inside of the crossbar and crossed the goal line.

Although play continued for a few seconds before it was blown dead, the goal counted to lift the Lions to a 1-0 win, punching their ticket to the Class 4A girls soccer title game, the first girls soccer state championship game for the program.

“We made history tonight,” coach Ashleigh Fitterer said. “This is the first state title game that we’ll be competing in. We made it to the semis last year and lost in double-overtime in 3A. Now we come in at 4A and we’ve been underdogs the whole time.”

Relatively speaking, at least.

The Lions are the No. 1 seed on the 4A bracket and finished the regular season with just one loss. They had been tested plenty, winning six games by a score of either 1-0 or 2-0 through the course of the season. That included a 1-0 overtime win against Mullen in the 4A quarterfinals.

There were plenty of chances for the Lions to connect on goals earlier in the game. The best chance was maybe a Kyla Hopkins shot that was fired toward the goal, but was corralled by Wright. Every solid shot the Lions took got turned away so it was only natural that fluky goal got by her after rattling around in front of the next.

“It wasn’t a clear goal,” Johnson said. “But I saw it go in and we kept playing for a bit before [the official] called it back.”

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(2) Dakota Ridge 2, (6) Northfield 0

(Dennis Pleuss/Jeffco Athletics)

Bailey Pignatore buried a shot in the back of the net to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead in the 32nd minute. They maintained the lead the rest of the way and punched a ticket to the 4A state championship which will take place on Tuesday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

Pignatore’s shot was setup on a brilliant pass Hannah Arnold.

Northfield had a chance to tie the game on a penalty kick in the second half, but Betza Contreras’ shot was turned away by Eagles keeper Kassidy Spencer.

The Eagles are playing in a state title game for the first time since 2011 when they lost to Mountain Vista in the 5A championship game. Dakota Ridge’s lone girls soccer state title was won in 2003 when they beat Jeffco foe Green Mountain for the 5A championship.

Dakota Ridge and Lutheran will meet at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday at DSGP.