Golden boys soccer grinds out win over Littleton

ARVADA — It wasn’t pretty at times, but Golden managed to stay undefeated in Class 4A Jeffco League play on the boys soccer pitch Tuesday night.

The Demons (4-4-1, 2-0 in 4A Jeffco) grabbed a slim 1-0 victory over Littleton at the North Area Athletic Complex. It was the second straight win for Golden after going through a tough 4-game winless streak before the start of conference play.

“We’ll take a win for sure, 2-0 in league is not bad,” Golden senior Flynn Halsor said. “We have a little bit of a higher standard for ourselves and we fell short of that today. We’ll have Thursday (versus D’Evelyn) to make up for that and plenty more after that.”

Halsor scored the lone tally in the opening half. The midfielder put in his team-leading fourth goal of the season from close range in the 15th minute. A nice pass from senior Owen Berg set up the goal.

“That was one of the prettiest team goals I’ve been apart of,” Halsor said of the first and only goal of the match. “It felt good. That was a good one.”

Golden had a 4-game scoreless drought before an impressive 6-0 victory over Dakota Ridge last week to open league play. First-year Golden coach Jamie Scarcliff admitted her squad is still working on finishing in the final third.

“We had some good moments where we had good combinations. That one was fantastic,” Scarcliff said of Halsor’s goal. “Sometimes we hold the ball too long. Flynn had a great finish as well.”

The Demons had a pair of good scoring changes midway through the first half. Sophomore Kieran Baker and junior Milo Messina both had great shots on goal, but Littleton goalie Hayden Habitz came up big with diving saves on both shots.

The Lions (4-4, 1-1) nearly tied things up in the 33rd minute. Senior Miguel Schlote — Littleton’s leading scorer — had a nifty flick over Golden goalie Garett Kula, but the ball hit the crossbar and over the goal.

“That was nerve-racking,” Kula said of Schlote’s flick that nearly went in. “It was sloppy, but in the end it didn’t go in. I was nervous.”

Littleton didn’t get many scoring chances in the second half as Golden’s midfielders and defenders held strong in front of Kula.

“We were playing slower than we normally do,” Kula said of the flow of the game. “We knew we had to stay solid in the back. We knew one mess-up could change the whole game.”

Golden is back in action Thursday at Lakewood Memorial Field. The Demons face D’Evelyn (3-5-1, 2-0) at 5 p.m. in another key conference game. The Jaguars stayed undefeated in league play Tuesday with a 5-0 victory over Conifer at Lakewood Memorial Field.

“We are defintely in a grind,” Scarcliff said of the 4A Jeffco League play. “There are a lot of new coaches and changes in style between teams. We are all kind of sitting and .500. We have to get our minds right a little bit more as we approach the rest of league play.”

Littleton will also be at Lakewood Memorial Field on Thursday. The Lions face Dakota Ridge in the 7 p.m. nightcap.