Evergreen and Green Mountain battle to draw on girls soccer pitch

LAKEWOOD — Evergreen and Green Mountain girls soccer teams both left Lakewood Memorial Field on Wednesday night with their undefeated records intact.

Evergreen — defending Class 4A state champions — held a 1-0 lead for the majority of the game, but a late goal by Green Mountain senior and University of Idaho-commit Alyssa Hamilton eventually resulted in the final 1-1 tie.

“It was a great match. Very high-paced. It was physical,” Evergreen coach Peter Jeans said. “My hats off to them (Green Mountain). That’s a very good team. I thought we played a great game.”

The Cougars (1-0-2, 0-0-1 in Class 4A/3A Jeffco League) came out of the gates with a ton of pressure in the opening minutes. Freshman Izzy Clark was able to punch in a goal off a corner kick in the 2nd minute to give Evergreen the early 1-0 lead.

However, Hamilton took advantage of the giveaway by the Cougars and popped a long shot over the head of sophomore goalie Avery Mahnken and into the back of the net in the 65th minute to knock the game at 1-1.

Green Mountain (5-0-1, 0-0-1) came in riding a 5-game winning streak.

“We wanted to go win the game after that,” Hamilton said about the team’s mentality after her 11th goal of the season tied things up with 15 minutes to play. “We worked hard in the second half.”

The Cougars and Rams defenses held strong in the final minutes to end in the conference opener in a draw.

“We had an unfortunate circumstance that led to (Green Mountain’s) goal,” Jeans said. “Your team can’t play worse because of it. You have to meet the challenge and I thought they did that. We had some chances to win the game.”

Evergreen heads to the North Area Athletic Complex on Friday, March 28, to face Pomona.

“Every play matters,” Jeans said when asked what his team learned in the tie. “I think tonight each team had an unfortunate goal. It was a great game against two teams that are still undefeated.”

Green Mountain is back at Lakewood Memorial Field on Friday to face Conifer.

“Considering we were playing against the state champions. Yes,” Green Mountain coach Bari Abuhadema said when asked if he was happy with the result. “They are the champs until somebody beats them. I’ll take it.”

Abuhadema added that he was pleased with the Rams’ ‘fight’ after falling behind early, but regrouping to get the tie.

“There was a lot of learning tonight,” Hamilton said. “We knew those first 10 minutes were going to be hard. It was going to be a battle.”

The fight for the 4A/3A Jeffco League title should be tight again. D’Evelyn, Golden and Evergreen finished in a 3-way tie with 7-1 league records last season.