No. 1 Evergreen girls soccer ends busy week with win over Green Mountain

LAKEWOOD — Evergreen’s girls soccer team will get a well-deserved rest this weekend.

The Cougars — No. 1 in the CHSAANow.com Class 4A girls soccer rankings — played three games in four days this week. Evergreen wrapped up the busy stretch with a big 4-1 victory over 4A Jeffco League rival Green Mountain on Friday night at Lakewood Memorial Field.

“It’s a really hard week to play three times,” Evergreen coach Peter Jeans said. “Mentally we were super sharp in all three games. Our mentally was spot on today. That was awesome.”

Evergreen dominated Bear Creek 10-0 on Tuesday, but suffered a 3-1 loss to 5A Jeffco’s Columbine on Wednesday night. It was the Cougars’ first regular-season loss since the 2019 season. The COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 season and Evergreen’s lone loss last year came in the 4A state championship game.

“That’s the ultimate goal. That’s a big motivator,” Evergreen senior Catherine Rapp said of Evergreen losing 2-1 to Holy Family in the 4A state title game in Colorado Springs last June. “I felt last year we could have won it, but didn’t have the right mindset in that last game. This year we have really refocused and tried to be really close as a team.”

The Cougars (5-1, 3-0 in league) have already proved they are one of the most potent offenses in 4A. Evergreen already has four players — Catherine Rapp (6 goals), Lindsay Jeans (6 goals), Rami Rapp (5 goals) and Mary Cox (4 goals) — with at least four goals on the season.

Lindsay Jeans — daughter of Coach Jeans — got the scoring started against Green Mountain (3-2, 1-1) with a penalty kick in the 16th minute. Catherine — one of the three Rapp triplets — added to the lead with a goal a minute later.

“We wanted to control the field and we had a goal of winning 75 percent of (50/50) balls,” Catherine said. “We wanted to stay together as a team and play our game.”

Green Mountain battled back with a goal by senior Avery Kroeger off a corner kick in the 23rd minute. However, the Cougars responded with Rami Rapp putting in a goal five minutes before halftime.

“The third goal was huge and we wanted to keep going forward,” Coach Jeans said. “We are always trying to get that next goal.”

Evergreen got the final goal with the lone tally in the second half. Lindsay Jeans put in her second goal of the game on a shot from distance against the wind that sailed over  leaping Green Mountain goalie Taya Olguin.

The win leaves Evergreen tied with Golden (5-2-1, 3-0) atop the conference standings. The Cougars and Demons have a big showdown scheduled for April 19 at the North Area Athletic Complex that should play a huge roll in determining the league champion.

“We would like to win our league and it’s a really hard league to win,” Coach Jeans said. “We don’t take anything for granted. We have to play hard every time out because if you lose one game you aren’t going to win the league. I’ve put it as a focal point. You get to hang a banner.”