4A girls lacrosse: First-year Mead team grows up throughout season and becomes 4A state champs

DENVER – When the season began, the brand new Mead girls lacrosse team started from scratch.

The new program comprised of players from the St. Vrain school district — some of which played for Fairview last season — lost a one-goal game to Castle View in the first time they took the field. Fast forward through the regular season and a trio of playoff games and the Mavericks looked like a well-oiled machine when the teams squared off again Friday night at Peter Barton Lacrosse Stadium.

Mead (16-2) staved off an early challenge from Castle View and streaked to a 13-5 victory in a game in which sophomore midfielder Lucy Connors racked up seven goals and the defense gave up just two goals in the final 30 minutes of play.

“We didn’t even have a play,” Mead senior midfielder Allie Hartman said, referring to how they went into the 7-6 loss to the SaberCats March 9.

“We’ve gotten exponentially better,” she added. “Every game has been so much better and today was the peak of that.”

Indeed, coach Katie Coleman’s Mead team played about as thorough a game as could be hoped for it with such high stakes on the line.

It was the culmination of a long process, especially fusing together players from different schools into a cohesive unit.

“We started from the bottom and now we’re state champions,” Coleman said. “Every single day, they worked to get to this spot. I would have been proud of them regardless of the outcome, but every single day they took a step closer to this.

The Mavericks advanced with an overtime semifinal win over Evergreen that was decided on Hartman’s goal in the closing seconds, while Castle View (17-2) got there with a one-goal win over Green Mountain in which the winning goal came with 17 seconds left.

The teams played to a 3-3 tie through the first 17 minutes of the opening half, but Connor’s third goal of the half followed by one from freshman Morgan Elson made it a three-goal game.

Tessa Boehm scored for the SaberCats to make it a two-goal game at halftime, but Castle View was limited to just one more goal the rest of the game.

Coleman said Mead defenders show up 15 minutes before practice to get in extra work and playing against players such as Hartman, Connors and others in practice makes them well prepared for anybody in an opposing uniform.

“I played defense in college, so defense always has a special place in my heart,” Coleman said. “I think defense wins championships and I know today that would be the case. Our offense is high powered and they will get their goals, so our recipe all season has been stopping high offense threats.”

Mead’s offense has plenty of threats and the connection of Hartman to Connors was definitely working.

The duo accounted for all but one of the Mavericks’ seven goals in the second half (Mia Welty had the other).

“We played together at Fairview and I first met her as a freshman,” Connors said. “I love Allie. We connect on draws and we both play midfield, so we’re always just together doing things. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time today.”

Senior Evie Tanella scored three goals for Castle View, which had won 15 straight games since a loss to ThunderRidge.

Hartman was happy with the way the season ended considering she lost her freshman year to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Fairview team she played with lost in the first round when she was a sophomore and in last season’s semifinals.

“Got closer every year, but we finally made it, so this feels good,” she said.