Mountain Vista and Ralston Valley advance to girls soccer 5A state semis

ARVADA — Top-seeded Mountain Vista and Ralston Valley will be moving on the Class 5A girls soccer state semifinals Wednesday, May 15, at CIBER Field at the University of Denver. 

The Golden Eagles had to sweat out a 1-0 overtime victory over No. 8 Pine Creek in the first of two 5A state quarterfinals at the North Area Athletic Complex. Ralston Valley recorded a 3-0 shutout win over No. 13 Grandview in the nightcap.

The semifinal — Ralston Valley versus Mountain Vista — will be a rematch of a non-league game earlier this season that Mountain Vista won 4-2.

No. 1 Mountain Vista 1, No. 8 Pine Creek 0 (OT)

Mountain Vista sophomore Keira Woody was mobbed by her teammates five minutes in the first overtime period for a good reason.

Woody scored her first goal of the season to send the Golden Eagles (16-0-1 record) into the state semifinals. The dramatic 1-0 overtime victory against Pine Creek (12-3-2) kept the undefeated season alive for Mountain Vista.

“It feels great. It’s an honor to be coaching this group of girls,” said Mountain Vista coach Theresa Echtermeyer, who has coached six state championship teams — Green Mountain (2) and Mountain Vista (4) — during her illustrious coaching career. “They work hard and have a lot of belief in each other. That shows what happened here.”

Woody broke the scoreless tie during a wild sequence in the 85th minute.

“There was really just a lot of chaos in the box,” Woody said. “Riley (MacDonald) had a lot of shots, but it popped out. I toe poked it in.”

Mountain Vista freshman Avery Beer had initially ripped a shot off the crossbar to start the chaos. Senior Riley MacDonald was able to get to the rebound, but wasn’t able to get off a solid shot with a handful of Pine Creek players surrounding her.

“It is that second and third effort. You need to do that for an entire game and not give up,” Echtermeyer said of the game-winning goal. 

Woody was able to get into the mix and got a foot on the ball to rip it past Pine Creek freshman goalie Autumn Montoya for the game-winner.

“It was kind of slow-motion because so much was happening,” Woody said. “The goalie was on the other side so I was able to slot it in.”

Mountain Vista put a ton of offensive pressure on Pine Creek in the opening 20 minutes. It all started with senior Lily Boydstun firing a shot off the crossbar in the opening minute.

“Those are the ones you need early to relieve that pressure,” Echtermeyer said of the Golden Eagles unable to scoring during the first 20 minutes. “Sometimes in soccer it’s tough to put it in the back of the net. I loved the opportunities we created.”

However, Montoya was able to hold her ground and didn’t allow the Golden Eagles a goal in the opening half. Pine Creek’s best scoring chance game on a solid shot by senior Aubriana Austin in the 39th minute before time expired in the opening half with the game scoreless.

The strategy was simple for Mountain Vista heading into overtime.

“We really put more numbers forward,” Woody said of the mindset going into overtime. “We just focused on attacking because we needed the goal quick.”

No. 5 Ralston Valley 3, No. 13 Grandview 0

The leading goalscorer in 5A delivered in the first half for Ralston Valley.

Junior Raleigh Greason found the back of the net in the 30th and 37th minutes to give the Mustangs a 2-0 halftime lead on the way to a 3-0 shutout victory over Grandview.

“When I hit that first one I kind of knew it was our game. It got us going,” Greason said of the Mustangs (15-2-1) grabbing a 1-0 lead. “Our first 10 minutes weren’t our best, but when we did score our energy picked up.”

Greason second goal late in the first half was a shot that deflected off a Grandview defender and past Wolves’ goalie Ivy Daniel for the 2-goal advantage. The Texas Tech University verbal commit now has 36 goals on the season. 

“We have been kind of a second-half team. To put those two goals in was awesome,” Ralston Valley coach Kamee Morwood said. “Having 2-0 going to halftime is what we wanted. They are doing whatever they can to make it happen.”

Freshman Evilyn Morwood added an insurance goal in the 72nd minute to secure the win in the nightcap at NAAC. Senior goalie Margot Mulhern had some key saves early for the Mustangs and preserved the shutout fending off a couple of late scoring chances by Grandview (10-6-1)

“We are ready. We are super excited,” Greason said of going into the semifinal against the top seed. “We are going to put it all out on the field Wednesday at DU.”

Mountain Vista’s 4-2 victory over Ralston Valley came on March 30 at Ralston Valley High School. The four goals allowed was the most the Mustangs have given up in a single game this season.

“Of course we always look forward to playing somebody who has bettered us during the season,” Coach Morwood said of the rematch against Mountain Vista. “It will be a great match-up. Hopefully our defense will be able to continue to hold strong and do what we can offensively.”

In the other two quarterfinal games played at Englewood High School on Monday night, No. 10 Heritage and No. 2 Rock Canyon punched their tickets to DU. Heritage upset No. 2 Fossil Ridge 2-0, while Rock Canyon edged No. 11 Castle View 2-1.

Ralston Valley and Mountain Vista will be the opening game at 5 p.m. Wednesday at DU. The nightcap will be Heritage against Rock Canyon with a 7:30 p.m. scheduled start.