Ralston Valley girls soccer defeats defending 4A state champs

ARVADA — Ralston Valley’s girls soccer team has been able to adjust to the early graduation of Raleigh Greason.

Greason graduated a semester early from Ralston Valley High School so she could get a jump-start on her college career at Texas Tech University. Greason had a historic junior season in 2024 with 36 goals and 10 assists during the Mustangs run to the Class 5A state semifinals.

“Obviously, Raleigh is great. She is going to go thrive up at Texas Tech,” Ralston Valley sophomore Santana Sabus said. “We’ve come together and everyone has gotten a year older and taken a step up. We’ve all taken the responsibility to go work their hardest. We’ve made a lot of improvements from last year. We have all rallied around each other.”

Ralston Valley finished with a 15-3-1 record a year ago. Even with Greason, along with start goalie Margot Mulhern gone, the Mustangs (5-0 record) have trampled their competition so far.

“You can never replace certain players,” Ralston Valley coach Kamee Morwood said of not having Greason this season. “But you play differently without them. I feel like that is what we have done this year. I like what I’ve seen. I like people stepping up to fill roles. It is fun to watch.”

The match-up Monday night at the North Area Athletic Complex was fun to watch between Ralston Valley and the defending 4A state champion Evergreen Cougars. Santana Sabus put in her 10th and 11th goals of the season to help lift the Mustangs to a 4-1 victory.

Evergreen (2-1-2, 1-0-1 in 4A Jeffco League) tied things up 1-1 with a goal by junior Cameron Wedding in the 45th minute. It was actually the first goal Ralston Valley had allowed all season.

“Our defense has a lot of grit and we work hard for it,” Santana Sabus said after Evergreen ended Ralston Valley’s shutout streak. “Every play is a new play. We have the ability to bounce back.”

Ralston Valley retook the lead in the 50th minute when senior Sienna Eckert was able to get to a deflected shot that Evergreen goal Avery Mahnken wasn’t able to gather in to put the Mustangs up 2-1.

Sophomore Lauren Sabus pushed the lead to 3-1 in the 74th minute and Santana Sabus put the finishing touches on the victory with a breakaway goal with 19.3 seconds to play.

“We dug deep and all together as a team they did it and were able to put the right people through to score the goals,” Morwood said after the Mustangs’ fifth straight victory to start the season.

Evergreen nearly tied the game at 2-2, but the hard shot to the opposite post by junior Gianna Weiner hit the inside of the post and rocketed just outside the goal-line before getting cleared.

“For sure it was a good test,” Santana Sabus said of facing the defending 4A state champions. “They are an awesome team. They have had great years. This was a test for us to show everyone how good we actually are.”

Ralston Valley is scheduled for another formidable foe in Boulder (4-0-1) at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 3, back at NAAC.

Evergreen was right back at NAAC on Tuesday, April 1, for a league game against Bear Creek (2-3-1, 1-1-0).