5A Boys Soccer: Cherry Creek Rallies for State Championship Victory

COMMERCE CITY – Cole Wearner has dreamt of winning a high school boys soccer state championship since he was a young boy.

On Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, that dream came true for Wearner and also the rest of his Bruins teammates. And his golden goal was the heroic game-winner that clinched a 2-1 overtime win over Broomfield and the Bruins’ first title since 2010.

“It’s the best feeling in the world,” Wearner said. “It’s been a dream of all of ours since elementary school together, so it’s such a great feeling to end high school this way.”

Saturday’s game between the fourth-seeded Bruins (18-1-1) and the No. 3-seeded defending champion Eagles (16-3-1) was scoreless at halftime. Broomfield’s Adam Thresher broke the stalemate with a goal in the 44th minute, assisted by Hayes Baucom. Cherry Creek tied the game with a penalty kick by Austin Hall with 7 minutes, 45 seconds left in the second half to send the game into overtime.

In the 93rd minute of play, Wearner scored the game-winner, assisted by his brother Reed Wearner.

To reach the state championship game, Cherry Creek won a 1-0 upset over No. 1 Northfield.

“The upsets, they look cool on the leaderboard or whatever but I think that we knew at the start of the year that we were going to win state and I knew that no number next to our name was going to tell us how good we are or anything like that,” Wearner said. “This was our goal from the start and I’m glad we fulfilled it.”

Cherry Creek is now tied with Colorado Academy for second all-time with seven boys soccer championships. Broomfield has the most boys soccer titles in state history with nine.

Prior to this season’s runner-up finish, Broomfield had won five of the last 10 state titles in 5A.

To reach the championship game, Broomfield won 2-1 over No. 2 Boulder.