No. 3 Green Mountain edges D’Evelyn in 4A Jeffco finale

LAKEWOOD — Green Mountain got a little bit of a closer game than maybe anticipated Thursday night at Lakewood Memorial Field.

The Rams — No. 3 in the Class 4A girls soccer CHSAANow.com rankings — edged rival D’Evelyn 2-1 in the 4A Jeffco League finale for both teams. Sophomore Sasha Calanni (17th minute) and freshman Charlize Ellsworth (68th minute) had the Green Mountain goals in the Rams’ sixth straight win to close out the regular season.

Despite controlling possession and scoring chances, D’Evelyn junior goalie Lexi Ornstein made save-after-save to keep the Jaguars (5-8-1, 4-3-1 in league) within striking distance.

“A win is a win,” Green Mountain coach Bari Abuhadema said after the 1-goal victory. “We controlled the match, especially in the first half.”

Green Mountain (12-3, 7-1) was looking to grab a fourth straight shutout victory before heading into the postseason, but D’Evelyn junior Haley Janakus put a shot into the back of the net with 10 seconds remaining in the game to break-up the shutout.

Still, the Rams were able to run their winning steak to six games after dropping back-to-back games No. 4 Northfield and No. 2 Dakota Ridge a few weeks ago.

“We are very good on the field. We are strong everywhere,” Green Mountain senior midfielder Sofia Scaturro said. “Finishing just comes when it comes. You just have to shoot, shoot, shoot until you score. That is what we did to come out with this win.”

It was more than just a rivalry game for Scaturro, who transferred to Green Mountain from D’Evelyn after her sophomore year.

“There is always that automatic rivalry being neighborhood schools, but then there is the fact that I transferred,” said Scaturro, who had a younger brother at D’Evelyn. “The passion is there. It was so great to come out with the win.”

Scaturro has torn her ACL in both knees during her high school career. She played for the Jaguars her sophomore year before having to have surgery and then sat out her junior year.

“Coming back, getting second in league and going into playoff with a pretty good record is so much fun,” Scaturro said.

Green Mountain is done with its regular season and will just have to wait to see what seed it receives for the 4A state tournament. CHSAA is scheduled to release the 32-team bracket Sunday, May 7.

“We are just focusing on continuing the team bounding aspect,” Scaturro said of preparing for the state tournament that begins next week. “We are having a team lunch with the brackets come out to keep that team bounding.”

The Rams were No. 3 in RPI rankings before Thursday night’s game.

“I don’t think it matters if you are a top seed,” Abuhadema said. “We’ve seen the 32-seed take the 1-seed out. That can happen. We don’t want that to happen to us.”

D’Evelyn does have one more non-league game Saturday at Holy Family. The Jaguars were No. 37 in RPI before the loss to Green Mountain.