Green Mountain boys lacrosse plans to keep its winning ways

ARVADA — Green Mountain boys lacrosse team has had six straight winning seasons.

“We have been lucky to win a lot of games for a while,” Green Mountain coach Nate Hallahan said of the program. “We want to keep doing that. These guys expect to win.”

The Rams are off to a solid start to keeping that string alive after a nice 9-6 victory Wednesday night over Lutheran at the North Area Athletic Complex. Green Mountain (3-1 record) trailed early, but went on a 8-1 run from late in the first quarter through the third quarter for its first victory coming out of Spring Break.

“We were just trying to move the ball and get some shots on early,” Green Mountain senior attacker/midfielder Caden Jantzer said. “We were just trying to get our offense going. It was a good first half and a great second quarter coming out hot.”

Lutheran (2-3) held a 2-1 lead late in the first quarter, but a bad turnover in the final seconds ended up on Jantzer’s stick one-on-one with Lutheran sophomore goalie Tyler Michell. Jantzer buried the shot with 9.4 seconds left in the opening quarter to tie things up 2-2. 

Jantzer would find the back of the net twice in the second quarter and senior Quinn Johnson put in his second goal of the game to give the Rams a 5-2 halftime lead. After an opening second-half goal by Lions’ Simon Gunther, Green Mountain responded with a 4-0 run to end the quarter to take a 9-3 lead going into the fourth.

Four different Rams scored in the quarter that showed how Green Mountain’s offense won’t look like it did last year when Kole Stratman led the Rams with 40 goals. 

“Kole was a big kid who would run through guys and could just shoot off the run,” Jantzer said. “We don’t have that size anymore. We have to dodge and pass as much as we can without running through guys.”

This biggest change for the Rams is the absence of Stratman.

“Skill wise, we’ll be a little bit of a developing project this year,” Hallahan admitted with the graduation of Stratman. “But, I think our kids always work hard and that is fun to be around. I think we are figuring out how to play the right way to be able to win.”

Lutheran did outscore Green Mountain 3-0 in the final quarter as Hallahan worked on getting in some of his bench players. Senior Borden Tabor picked up the win in net for the Rams.

“We have high expectations for us with as many seniors as we have,” Jantzer said. “We want to go as far as we can for as long as we can.”

Green Mountain returns to action to face Ralston Valley (2-0) at 7 p.m. Friday, March 29, at Jeffco Stadium.

Cherokee Trail 16, Lakewood 12

The second game of the varsity doubleheader at NAAC provided to be an offensive show.

Cherokee Trail erased an early 4-0 lead by Lakewood. The Cougars eventually took a 16-12 victory led by senior Nate Gilmore’s four-goal performance. Gilmore poured in 46 goals last season.

Lakewood coach Darin Denton has plenty of young talent, headlined by Jaxson Fontenot. The freshman attacker finished with a game-high five goals, including three straight to start the fourth quarter as the Tigers trimmed the Cougars’ lead to 14-11.

Junior Damon Schuetz had a nice game with four goals and freshmen Lukas Gonzales and Henry Rodriguez both found the back of the net for the Tigers in the loss. Lakewood (2-3) faces Jeffco rival Dakota Ridge at 5 p.m. Friday, March 29, at Jeffco Stadium.