No. 1 Dawson boys lacrosse battles back to beat No. 3 Conifer in double OT
LAFAYETTE — A true battle test emerged between the No. 1 Dawson Mustangs and the No. 3 Conifer Lobos as each team left everything on the field on Wednesday.
The Mustangs (now 10-1, 4-0) were able to pull off a comeback win in double overtime, winning 12-11 over the Lobos (9-1, 4-1) in an important Class 4A Foothills Conference game.
The game started off with both teams playing great defense, causing turnovers and limiting the score to 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.
“It’s two really high-caliber teams both coming out,” Lobos coach Clint Frost said. “I don’t think anyone would have told you that it would be 2-1 at the end of the first quarter.”
Both teams were able to find their intensity in the second quarter, as Conifer kept inching closer and closer to Dawson. And finally all that intensity transitioned into goals, as the Lobos were able to take the lead in the third quarter, going up 9-8.
Conifer found itself winning ground ball after ground ball and continued to find the back of the net.
Sophomore Nick Williams scored three goals for Conifer, which helped extend the lead to three with just under four minutes remaining.
But little did they know that Dawson wasn’t ready to throw in the towel quite yet.
Dawson came back with three goals of its own to tie the game with 4.8 seconds left.
Gavyn Pure was pure gold for the Mustangs has he knocked in four goals, including the tying tally and the game-winning goal in overtime.
“That game was a lot of fun and intense, they are a really good team and we kind of lost our intensity but then we picked it up in the last three minutes,” Pure said after the game.
The Mustangs were out to prove to the Lobos why they are ranked No.1 in 4A and they did just that at the time they needed to the most.
“I’m just so proud of the guys, that was an unbelievable effort,” Dawson coach Peter Devlin after the crazy win. “Just the resilience they showed, it would have been so easy to pack it in when they went up by three with three-and-half minutes to go, but they didn’t. They just kept on trying.”
After Pure’s tying goal, the Mustang crowd began to get back into the game and the players began to feed off of their energy. And they needed all the energy they could get heading into the second overtime, still tied at 11 all.
One player in particular gave the Mustangs the glimmer of hope they needed for the win, as he was able to break through the double team and find Pure for the go head game winning goal.
“Wyatt Watts doesn’t get enough credit, that was a great pass, it’s hard to look when you’re getting double covered and I had the easy part, just put it in on a open goal,” Pure on his senior teammate. “You got to give Wyatt the credit there.”
And for Dawson this win was made possible by their brick wall of a goalkeeper Chad Dunnell as he had 23 saves, three of which came during the second overtime.
“Both overtimes our goalie made some huge saves, in that kind of pressure situation, I’m just so so happy for them,” Devlin said.
Both teams are looking forward to a potential rematch in the playoffs, but for now they will both have to keep pushing through the rest of their season in order to get there.
