DENVER – If two words could sum up the offense of the Evergreen girls lacrosse team in the Class 4A state championship Friday night, it would be anyone and everyone.
The Cougars opened a double-digit lead in the second half with eight players contributing goals as they shellacked Green Mountain 19-6 at Peter Barton Stadium. It is Evergreen’s second consecutive title and its third since 2021. Thirteen goals are the second-largest margin of victory since the sport was sanctioned by CHSAA in 1998, eclipsed only by the Cougars’ 19-5 win over Castle View in 2021.
“You don’t want to defend your title,” Evergreen coach Rachel Sanford said. “You want to go out and chase another one. It’s a little bit of a different mentality and that’s what we’ve had all year.”
The match opened with the teams trading two goals apiece across the first quarter. Emma Crosbie struck first for the Cougars, followed by Ryn Gardner on a free possession. Green Mountain fired back with two goals from Kara, the first on a feed from Rome Villani to an open crease and the second with Neyra Bergic sliding a pass into heavy traffic.
The Rams opened the second quarter with a possession that spanned 4 minutes, 45 seconds but ultimately resulted in a turnover. From there, the momentum went to the Cougars, with 11 consecutive goals.
Grace Lessig streaked up the field wide open and was found on a long pass from Addison White. Alivia Hunsche followed up with another quick score, then Gardner struck again with 3:44 left in the half.
The Cougars kept it going to start the third quarter when Hunsche found Emma Crosbie, then Lessig, Gardner, Addie Stockton and White pushed the score to 13-2 at the final break.
Green Mountain broke the rally in the first 20 seconds of the fourth quarter on a marker from Kara Harris, but the Cougars added another six goals to close things out, including the 100th career goal for Addison McEvers.
“We really wanted to get that for her,” Sanford said. “Our upperclassmen really have a sense of leadership and recognize who has and hasn’t scored. We want to make sure that everybody gets their goals and we absolutely did that tonight.”
The Cougars scored at least 16 goals in each of their playoff games and finish with a 16-2 record. Evergreen hasn’t lost since early April, when they dropped a 14-10 game to 5A finalist Valor Christian. Their 12-game winning streak since then includes an 11-10 victory over ThunderRidge, the other 5A finalist.
“I call them my sisters every day,” said Crosbie, who finished with four goals. “We all love each other so much and it means so much to win another state title with them. We’ve been playing together since we were in third grade, probably earlier, and this is what we’ve been building toward.”
