Standley Lake girls soccer tie 2-time defending 4A state champions at NAAC

ARVADA — Standley Lake wasn’t intimidated by the 2-time defending Class 4A girls soccer state champions on the pitch Tuesday night.

Evergreen suffered its first blemish in 4A/3A Jeffco League play ending in a 0-0 draw against Standley Lake (4-2-2 record, 1-2-2 in league) at the North Area Athletic Complex.

“They have had a hard time believing that they are good enough,” Standley Lake coach Stephan Tallman said of the Gators who haven’t won a playoff game since 2019. “When you get beaten by the same clubs over and over and over, but it is starting to trickle in a little bit.”

The Gators ended a 6-game losing streak against the Cougars. Standley Lake had been outscored by Evergreen 17-2 in their previous six meetings. The last win for Standley Lake over Evergreen was back in 2018.

“They are starting to believe,” Tallman said. “We were close against Green Mountain and against Dakota Ridge last week. We haven’t beaten any of those teams since I’ve been here. A win would have been nice, but it’s nice to know that we can compete.”

Evergreen (4-1-3, 4-0-1) is still atop the conference standings at the midway point. The Cougars have league games remaining against Dakota Ridge, Golden, D’Evelyn, Wheat Ridge and rival Conifer.

“We didn’t play with enough thought,” Evergreen coach Peter Jeans said after the third tie so far this season for the Cougars. “They are sound defensively and we weren’t patient enough. We kept on going for the home run. We needed to hit more singles. We need to trust each other more and connect our passes to produce better scoring chances.”

One of Evergreen’s best scoring chances came off a corner kick from senior Gianna Weiner in the first half. Freshman Anya Leunig was able to head the corner to freshman Zoe Yoho, but Yoho’s shot went over the crossbar from close range.

Standley Lake sophomore goalie Kinsley Palmer was solid in net with her fifth shutout of the season.

Tallman gave a lot of credit to his assistant coach Greg Borchers who did an extensive film session with the team the day before breaking down on how to stay with the 2-time defending 4A set champions.

“We didn’t just sit back and defend, which was kind of our plan for 80 minutes,” Tallman said. “We tried attack when we could. I think a draw was a fair result.”

The lone blemish on the Cougars’ league record last season was a tie against Green Mountain. Evergreen defeated the Rams 1-0 in its league opener March 26.

Evergreen’s defense and junior goalie Avery Mahnken was just as impressive with the Cougars not allowing a goal for the fifth time this season. Evergreen has only given up four goals so far this year.

“If you play better and learn you will win games,” Jeans said. “Players can take from this, ‘I need to do more.’ Or they can take, ‘I need to trust my teammates more.’ I hope the lesson we take is we need to trust our teammates more.”

Evergreen is back in action against Dakota Ridge on Friday, April 10, at Lakewood Memorial Field. Standley Lake heads to the mountains for a non-league game against Steamboat Springs on Friday night.