No. 1 Valor Christian boys lacrosse outlasts No. 3 Battle Mountain, weather

HIGHLANDS RANCH — Valor Christian head coach John Grant Jr. credits his team’s determination for their success this season.

With the temperature plummeting and the wind whipping snow around their home field on Thursday, the Eagles proved that they knew how to handle adversity by holding off a scrappy Battle Mountain team by a final of 10-9.

“You know, we didn’t even talk about (the weather),” said Grant. “’High-winds Ranch’ or whatever these kids like to call it, we’ve been out here battling it all season long, probably where other teams would’ve taken the day off. It was more the players than us. But it definitely paid off today.”

Valor (7-0 overall), No. 1 in Class 4A, proved to have the quick-strike offense early on, with Grayson Goodyear scoring just a minute into the contest on a drive up the middle.

But from there, No. 3 Battle Mountain (5-1) seemed to gain their poise, carrying much of the play for the first half of the opening quarter. The Eagles’ defense collapsed well though, and the visiting team’s smaller attackers had trouble finding room to maneuver.

It wasn’t until almost halfway through the first quarter that the Huskies finally broke through, with Clayton Davis swinging out from behind the right side of goaltender Shawn Johnson and firing it into the back of the net.

Valor would answer immediately though, driving the length of the field in seconds and forging ahead again on a nice individual effort out of the corner by Don Provost.

The second quarter saw the two teams exchange possession often, as players on both sides picked up the physical play. Goals by Provost and Cole Baker paced Valor, while tallies by Tony Clark and Jeremy Sforzo kept the Huskies right at their heels.

The second half begun amid a light but persistent snowfall, compounded by growing winds flowing through the stadium.

Despite the declining weather, Valor opened up the third quarter much as they did the opening half, scoring just 73 seconds on a goal by Brett Haskins, then following it up just 16 seconds later on another blast by Provost.

While it was clear that the weather would be a factor in the second half, it wasn’t so much that Battle Mountain didn’t respond as it was that Valor never gave them a chance to get an attack off the ground. By the time the Eagles had killed another four minutes of clock with regular possession and put home another goal, the Huskies needed something good to happen before the end of the period to have much hope of mounting a comeback.

They’d get it, in the form of two goals in less than a minute, off the sticks of Wyatt Dilling and Clayton Davis. Valor would add one more though, making it 8-5 heading into the final quarter.

The snow let up ahead of the fourth quarter, and Battle Mountain took advantage, this time giving the Eagles a taste of their own medicine by making it a two goal game less than a minute and a half into the quarter. Dillings’s goal less than a minute after had the home crowd glancing nervously at each other.

With the lead on the line, Valor was determined and deliberate in the next two possessions, with precision passing and more than a few set plays before executing a pair of quick passes out front that were buried by Dalton Ziegler and Grayson Goodyear.

The Huskies had a quick pass play of their own though that would be buried by Clayton Davis with just four minutes to go, and Davis would get the game’s final goal with a minute to go, before time expired on the Huskies before the equalizer.

“Clayton had such a wonderful game,” said one of Battle Mountain’s associate coaches. “The whole attack played great and those guys have a very, very good defense. We battled, but ultimately came up short.”

The win is the seventh in a row to start the season for the Eagles, who moved atop the 4A rankings for the first time a little over a week ago. But Grant isn’t letting his team rest on their laurels. Especially after the late collapse.

“We got some timely goals from some guys who don’t usually do that,” Grant said. “And it’s nice to spread it around. On the other hand we gotta do something to clean up these penalties late in games, because we are giving teams a chance to get back in it.”

For now his team remains undefeated, and they don’t look to be taking a step back now.