DENVER - A fantastic night could have been better for Brant Ward Monday.
The Mountain Vista senior goalie had the Class 5A boys lacrosse state championship to celebrate with his team — courtesy of a rousing 10-8 victory over second-seeded Valor Christian at Peter Barton Stadium at the University of Denver — but one thing could have made it perfect.
In the middle of his team’s second-half rally, Ward dialed up a shot that traveled the length of the field, took a hop towards an empty net, but bounced off the top of the crossbar and over the goal. Thankfully, senior Joel Palasz scored five goals and Mountain Vista’s offense did enough without a score from its goalie as it captured a second straight championship in three seasons.
“In our first playoff game against Castle View, I had one that the goalie saved, but this one looked like it was perfect,” Ward said. “Then it hit the bar and I was crushed, so disappointed.? This (the state championship) is definitely more important than the goal, but it would have been nice.”
That proved to be about the only regret coach Matt Plitnick’s Golden Eagles (16-3) could have had over the final three quarters as they put the sting of last season’s loss to Arapahoe in the state final behind them to win a title to match the one they took in 2021 (also against Valor Christian).
Valor Christian (17-2) won the first meeting between the two teams by a 10-4 score on April 28 and got off to a fast start in the rematch with an opening period that saw Blake Ham, Baden Brown, LSM Luke Alread and Rush LaSelle score goals.
But Mountain Vista’s defense tightened up in the second period and held the Eagles scoreless for the final 9:21 of the first half, while they crept within a goal at the break on a goal by senior Ethan Pearson and the first of a handful from Palasz.
“The leadership from our seniors was absolutely amazing,” Plitnick said. “Down 4-1, the seniors held it together. They are the ones that believed that we could get back into it and that’s exactly what the seniors did for us.”
Junior Brody Reedy and his fellow defenders and Ward played an exceptional third quarter in which Valor Christian failed to score and the scoreless stretch went more than 25 minutes until Ham’s goal nearly five minutes into the final period.
“We had a very rough start and you never want to do that, but to only give up four goals in the last three quarters just shows the amount of work we put in on defense,” Ward said. “It’s a whole new defense. Nobody returned, it’s a bunch of young kids and we balled out the last three quarters.”
Meanwhile, Palasz and company surged to seven-straight goals and a lead as large as 9-5 early in the fourth quarter.
A penalty on a hit on Quillan Gulick with just 2.1 seconds left in the opening half proved large, as Mountain Vista scored two of those goals on the man advantage and kept going from there.
Palasz played the game with a bum wrist and finished it with blood dripping down his ear and onto his face, but he was proud that his team never got too discouraged and fought back.
“We were composed, we knew what we were capable of doing,” he said. “We went out there and executed it and stuck together like brothers. That’s what you have to do in games and moments like that.”
Valor Christian tightened it up a bit with the final two goals, plus another shot that hit a post, but fell short.
The victory justified Mountain Vista’s belief in itself, despite some stumbles earlier in the season.
“We’re a new team since the playoffs started, all of our losses were not because we got beat, but because we beat ourselves,” Ward said. “We knew we were the best team in the state, we just hadn’t played a complete game and we finally did in these playoffs.”