COMMERCE CITY – The story of Mountain Vista and Rock Canyon this year has been fairly simple. Two unstoppable forces. Two immovable objects. After playing to a scoreless draw on April 29, the Class 5A girls soccer state title game set to be tightly contested battle.
But something had to give eventually.
In the 67th minute, a Lily Boydstun was placed perfectly at the foot of Laney Erickson and she knocked it right by Rock Canyon keeper Brenna Schoenfelder.
That was all the Golden Eagles needed as the 1-0 win over their league and district rival gave them their first girls soccer title since 2017.
“It can’t get better than that,” Erickson said.
From the get go, they knew this wasn’t going to be an easy championship to win. Although they came into the 5A state tournament as the No. 1 seed and zero losses to their name, they had one slight blemish on their record and that was the tie to the Jaguars.
For 80 minutes, this was going to be a battle and neither team was taking anything lightly once the initial touch of the contest was made.
“We’re neighbors and like us, they hadn’t lost a game all season,” coach Theresa Echtermeyer said. “We knew it was going to be a tremendous match, which it was.”
The Golden Eagles certainly had their chances early. Erickson actually got the ball by Schoenfelder in the back end of the first half, but she was whistled offsides. Boydstun had her own look as she fired a bullet toward the Rock Canyon goal, but it smacked off the post.
“It was this close,” Boydstun said. “I swear it was going in. I put my hands on my head. Are you kidding?”
At the break, the Golden Eagles made their typical switch in the net with Kendall Johnston taking over for Casey Loughran. Although Loughran made some significant saves, this has been the plan all year was a big reason why Mountain Vista had advanced to the state championship.
“Kendall and Casey have been sharing time in net and we have confidence in both of them,” Echtermeyer said. “It was never a doubt. We knew both of them would do the job that needed to happen and they kept the sheet clean.”
The opportunity to break the tie finally arrived in with under 14 minutes left in the game. Boydstun setup on the corner kick with the goal on her left side. A right-footed kicker, it’s easier for her to bend the ball toward the net and she saw Erickson standing in the near post with no one around her.
“I’m always placed right on the keeper,” Erickson said. “I just know if it comes to me, I have to put anything on it to get it by the keeper and that’s what I did. Lily put in a fantastic ball and it came right to me and I got the goal”
This is the fifth state state for the Golden Eagles and the first since beating Arapahoe 3-1 in the 2017 state title game. Even if the championship gap has felt like ages, Echtermeyer and her girls were reminded that good things come to those who wait.
