No. 2 Valor Christian boys lacrosse dominates No. 3 Cheyenne Mountain
COLORADO SPRINGS — Valor Christian went into Thursday night’s showdown with Cheyenne Mountain more than aware they were on a four-game losing streak.
And the players decided early that enough was enough.
A 10-0 run in the first half completely set the two teams apart and it was the CHSAANow.com No. 2-ranked Eagles who came away with a 22-8 win. When they end a four-game skid, they make sure everyone knows that they can still play some lacrosse.
“We were trying to prove to the state that we still got it after this losing streak,” sophomore Lance Tillman said.
The Eagles (3-4 overall) lost in a Class 4A state title rematch against Dawson before falling to Lewis-Palmer and two Florida teams.
Perhaps the worst part of this streak for the players is that they feel they were good enough to win each of those games.
“We’ve had a lot of games that we think we should have won, it was just little mistakes that came into play that we couldn’t capitalize on,” senior Grayson Goodyear said.
Thursday night, Valor came out looking like it was on a mission. Before Cheyenne Mountain knew what was happening, it was in a two-goal deficit.
Gianni Orlando and Tillman put the Eagles up 2-0 with five minutes, 44 seconds left in the first quarter. The Indians (4-3) responded with a goal from August Johnson and less than two minutes later Jack Egan found Wiley Burkett on a stellar pass from behind the net.
Burkett easily beat Valor goalie Jack Liselli and it looked like the game was a going to be a slugfest like the one at Don Breese Stadium.
“It’s weird, I don’t really worry about the score too much early,” Valor coach John Grant said. “I just worry about how they’re playing. If they’re playing well and playing hard, I’m more focused on that.
Goodyear scored right at the end of the quarter to regain the lead for the Eagles, and then the floodgates opened.
Valor scored seven goals in the second quarter, three of them coming off Tillman’s stick. He scored six goals in the game while Goodyear led all scorers with seven.
“It was all about ball movement,” Goodyear said. “We just stopped being selfish and we weren’t worried about stats or anything. We just moved the ball and found the net.”
At one point, Goodyear and Tillman scored only nine seconds apart and Tillman added another one 26 seconds after that.
Things wouldn’t get any better in the second half. Goodyear and Tillman picked up right where they left off and Cheyenne Mountain seemed overmatched by the defending Class 4A state champions.
Burkett was able to get his second goal of the game with 7:33 left in the third and Cullen Nordeman followed that up with three-straight goals. But it was too little, too late.
“They were just a far superior team than we were,” Indians coach Mike Paige said. “They were faster than we were and they had better ball control than we did. And they just didn’t make any errors.”
The Eagles took a 15-6 lead into the fourth quarter and although the Indians got another goal from Johnson, they just didn’t have the energy to rally back.
It’s the first win for Valor since Mar. 13 when they beat Conifer 20-10. For Grant, it’s much-needed relief to snap this streak, especially against a traditionally strong program.
“We never push the panic button,” Grant said. “We lost to a good Dawson team, Lewis-Palmer has been playing incredibly well and we played two very well-coached, amazing teams in Florida. We got the bad end of all four, but we stuck to the game plan.”
Valor is back in action Friday against Englewood and Cheyenne Mountain will see Thompson Valley on Saturday.
