Green Mountain boys lacrosse upsets No. 4 Dawson

LAKEWOOD — Green Mountain reeled off its third straight victory Wednesday night at Trailblazer Stadium.

It also was the biggest win of the year so far for the Rams. Green Mountain (5-3 record) knocked off Dawson School with a convincing 14-9 victory.

“Without question,” Green Mountain coach Nate Hallahan answered when asked if it was the biggest win of the season. “We’ve played some teams we should beat and played some games that we should have played better in.”

The Mustangs are No. 4 in the Class 4A CHSAANow.com boys lacrosse rankings.  Dawson (4-3, 1-0), along with Green Mountain, were a 4A state quarterfinal teams last season. 

“I’m happy with how we played,” Green Mountain senior defenseman Zach Wallace said. “We adjusted where we had to. Overall it was a great game.”

Green Mountain held a 7-5 lead at halftime thanks to four unanswered goals midway through the second quarter to give the Rams a 7-4 lead. Dawson senior Holden Walker scored his fourth goal of the quarter to make it a 2-goal game, but it would be Walker’s final goal of the game.

“We just wanted to shutoff their main guys to force other guys to make plays,” Wallace said of the defensive strategy. “We wanted shutoff No. 22 (Leo Bellanca) and No. 13 (Walker).”

Bellanca had 20 goals on the season, but was limited to just two goals he scored in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

“We’ve just got incredible athletes,” Hallahan said. “We have athlete defenders on our defense and I felt like our goalie (junior Bohdan Tabor) played out of his mind tonight.”

Green Mountain put its foot on the gas in the third quarter. The Rams scored five goals in a span of less than four minutes to extend their lead to 12-5. Five different Rams scored goals during the key stretch in the second half.

Senior Kole Stratman finished with a team-high four goals, but fellow seniors Anthony DiGrazia, Grant Haverkamp, Jacob Draper, along with junior Luc Meyer all had two goals in the win.

“If teams try to lock me up I’ve got four other guys that are going to put goals into the net,” Stratman said. “It’s great to have threats all over the field like we did today.”

Senior Zak Freedman and junior Blake Weslin added a goal each for the Rams.

“Getting it from a lot of places. That is what we like,” Hallahan said of the Rams’ balanced scoring. “I think that is the way we are going to win games. When we can get it from everyone we become hard to defend.”

The Rams’ largest lead was 14-6 late in the fourth quarter. Dawson put in a trio of goals in the final minutes to make the final score 14-9.

Green Mountain heads north to Loveland on Friday to face Resurrection Christian. The Rams begin conference play April 19 against Conifer. 

The 4A Foothills League will be tough with No. 5 Dakota Ridge and No. 7 Evergreen two of the favorites to win the conference title along with Green Mountain and Golden in the mix.

“There are going to be all great games coming up,” Stratman said of the 4A Foothills League play that begins next week. “I’m excited. The whole team is excited.”

Dawson is scheduled to face 5A’s Fairview up in Boulder on Saturday afternoon.