Evergreen girls lacrosse preparing to defend 4A state title

LAKEWOOD —  Averi Gardner and Bella Reece have picked up right where they left off last girls lacrosse season.

“They are a dominate duo,” Evergreen coach Rachel Sanford said of Gardner and Reece after the two juniors lead the Cougars to a 20-9 victory over Chatfield on Tuesday night at Trailblazer Stadium. “They are really impact players on both sides of the field and the middle field. It’s hard to take them off the field.”

Evergreen is coming off its first state title in the program’s history. The Cougars captured the 4A state title last year going on an 11-game winning streak to close out the season with the championship.

Gardner, Reece and Margo Miller — a graduated senior — all scored 47 goals each during the COVID shortened 13-game season last year.

Despite the graduations of Miller (47 goals and 22 assists) and star goalie Lauren Spence, but by no means is the cupboard empty for Evergreen. Gardner and Reece return and the two have already combined for 70 goals through Evergreen’s first seven games.

“We have such a good chemistry,” Reece said of her and Gardner. “We’ve been playing together for Mountain Lacrosse when both of our dads coached us. We can almost read each other’s minds when we are playing.”

Evergreen — No. 4 in the 4A CHSAANow.com rankings this week — were in a close game with Chatfield through the first half. The Chargers — No. 9 in the 5A CHSAANow.com rankings — trailed just 11-7 at the break despite falling behind early 5-0 to the Cougars.

“The past couple of games we haven’t really ended strong,” Sanford admitted. “That has been an emphasis for us this week. Finishing strong was our goal.”

Evergreen (4-3 record) started the second half out strong with a 5-0 run in the first seven minutes of the second half to push its lead to 16-7. Reece scored her seventh and final goal of the game to begin the run that put the game out of reach.

“We all had to come together,” Reece said of the second-half surge by the Cougars. “We had to realize where we were going good and were we weren’t. Coach Sanford did a great job getting us together and telling us to pick up the energy.”

Gardner finished with six goals, while Riley Harrington, Sarah Grube, Leighla Riemma and Emma Crosbie also go into the scoring act for Evergreen.

Evergreen freshman Neva Mertsching had seven saves and gave up just a pair of goals in the second half.

“She just picked up the position last year,” Sanford said of Mertsching. “She had her best game of the season tonight. Big saves. Great clears. I think she is really stepping up as a leader for us back there. She had big shoes to fill.”

Chatfield (4-3) had its 4-game winning streak snapped with the loss. Sophomores Kailen Want and Jayden Krause each had a pair of goals for the Chargers.

Chatfield started out the season slow with losses to Poudre School District and Castle View, but came into Tuesday’s game on a 4-game winning streak.

The Chargers begin 5A West League play next week facing three league foes that are all ranked in the top-10 in 5A. Chatfield has road games against No. 2 Valor Christian (Tuesday, April 19), No. 7 Kent Denver (Thursday, April 21) and No. 1 Colorado Academy (Saturday, April 23).

Evergreen will get plenty of tough competition once it gets into conference play. Currently five of six teams in the 4A West League are ranked in the top-7 of the 4A CHSAANow.com standings.

“It’s going to be really fun,” Sanford said of the league season. “It’s nice to end with the league games. We are excited to play the best competition in (4A) state and our league plus Thompson Valley are the top competitors in 4A.”