Cheyenne Mountain girls lacrosse powers by upstart Rampart

COLORADO SPRINGS – Typically, Cheyenne Mountain girls lacrosse has gotten off to fast starts in the first half of their games. Against Northfield, they scored 10 of their 14 goals in the first 25 minutes. In a win over Palmer, they scored 14 of their 21 goals in the first half.

Against Rampart, the Red-Tailed Hawks switched it up a bit. They scored seven times in the first half then added a barrage of goals in the second to get a 16-4 win over the Rams at District 20 Stadium.

“It’s something we’ve been working on, playing through 100 percent,” Cheyenne Mountain coach Teresa Lacayo said. “In the last few games that’s been showing a lot so in the future, maybe we’ll be a second-half team.”

The Hawks (5-2 overall) got five goals from both Ellie Burkett and Claire Kisielnicki through the course of the game. Kisielnicki got the second-half barrage started by scoring two within 38 seconds of each other, both of which came in the first two minutes of play in the second half.

Once those two got in the net, it felt like the Hawks just had a wave of momentum that they carried for the remainder of the game.

“That first half really brought our energy up,” Kiselnicki said. “That made us come together as a team and made us want to get some of those girls who didn’t have any goals yet on the board. Alex (Chandler) got her first goal of the season today and we all really wanted to get her the ball.”

Although the result wasn’t what the Rams (2-4) were hoping for, there is a genuine feeling of hope within the program. They only have three seniors on the roster and a lot of the impact players are underclassmen. Three of the four goals the Rams scored in the game came from either freshman Mia Thorne or sophomore Ava Uebelhoer.

Knowing that there is time for development, those players are doing what they can now in order to create a winning and family culture in the future.

“I’m hoping we can build a good team,” Thorne said. “This year is tough because a lot of our players are first-year players. We have a lot of young players on our team. Over the next few years if we can keep working on our fundamentals, I think we can be really good.”

A big part of that is a very familiar face for the Rams. Coach Allie Popelar led Rampart to the state quarterfinals as a senior before embarking on a collegiate career at the University of Tampa. The family atmosphere has drawn her back to Rampart where she hopes she can build the program back to a playoff level.

“We have several girls that are upperclassmen that came over from basketball and soccer who are our best defenders and it’s great to have them because they’re used to game situations,” Popelar said. “When we have younger girls that come in an score all our girls, it’s nice to have time to build them up so that by the time they’re seniors we’re more of a powerhouse. That’s the goal.”

The goal is going to take a little work and a little time. But Rampart went through those growing pains when Popelar was a freshman and they were a playoff team when she was a senior. She said she had a similar experience at Tampa.

She’s been on the player side of it and is welcoming of the challenge to be on the coaching side of it.