5A girls soccer: Clark’s hat trick nets Grandview fifth title since 2015

COMMERCE CITY – Naomi Clark simply was not going to allow the Grandview girls soccer team to leave Dick’s Sporting Goods Park without the 5A championship trophy on Wednesday night.

The golden-goal hero against Valor Christian in the semifinals five days prior, Clark scored a hat trick, including a pair of second-half goals just 90 seconds apart, to lead a 3-1 comeback win for the Wolves against Broomfield on Wednesday. With the win, the Grandview has now won five girls soccer state titles since 2015 and six overall.

“Our halftime is always our time and we always come out in the second half ready to play,” Clark said. “Especially today, we just put it in perspective that this is our last game and we could be going home in second place, and we don’t want that. I wanted to win it in my last game with these seniors. They’re my best friends, they’re my family. We knew that we wanted it and we got it.”

Defending champion and No. 2 seed Broomfield took the first lead of the game when senior Maddie Brady scored with 8 minutes, 19 seconds remaining in the first half. That 1-0 lead held up through the first half.

But just 4:13 into the second half, Clark netted the equalizer for No. 3 Grandview off an assist from Meg Gonzalez that tied the game with 35:47 left on the clock. A minute and a half later, she stole the ball and fired a blistering left-footed shot from outside the box to give the Wolves a 2-1 lead with 34:17 left.

With 1:28 remaining in the title match, Clark sealed the victory with her 20^th goal of the season.

“I was focused and I ready to come out and win the game,” Clark said. “After scoring that first one, I knew they were going to be down and I was hoping that they’d shut off for one second. I had to go out and I was going to take shots, as many as I can, so we can score more goals. I put my all into it and we got the momentum. That was the plan.”

Grandview and Broomfield have now combined to win the last four 5A girls soccer titles. For Grandview, this most recent championship felt redemptive after the Wolves failed to even qualify for the postseason in 2021.

“It’s crazy to think about how many times it’s been these two programs,” Grandview head coach Brian Wood said. “Jim (Davidson) does an amazing job over there and you always know they’re going to have a quality side. And we’ve been fortunate that we’ve had some great girls and we’ve developed a confidence that we can accomplish what we set out to do. Last year, we had a frustrating year for a couple reasons but we just came back and did our thing.”

Losing is always disappointing for a perennial powerhouse program like Broomfield. But at the end of a season in which the Eagles lost just twice, Broomfield head coach Jim Davidson said he was proud of his team for returning in 2022 and playing its way back into the final game of the campaign.

“The accomplishment of making it back to the title when we’ve had the target on our back all season, I thought the girls did really well to get into this game and give themselves a chance,” Davidson said. “We hobbled into this match banged up the whole second part of the season. That lack of depth and Grandview having a ton of depth, I think it was just too hard to keep up with on the big field. We struggled with some easy things like passing and clearing our lines, so it wasn’t the best match for us tonight.

“We weren’t great, but Grandview’s extremely tough to deal with. I’m extremely proud of the girls. I told them that they have nothing to regret, that the way they handled themselves and the way they played for each other and how much love they have for each other is really impressive, so those are the important things.”