COMMERCE CITY – For the first time since 2017, the Mountain Vista girls soccer team is the Class 5A state champion.

On Wednesday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the top-seeded Mountain Vista Golden Eagles (18-0-1) won 1-0 over No. 3 Rock Canyon (14-1-5) to emerge from a defensive battle as the 2024 champions.

“This team has been on this type of a journey for about three seasons, rising every season,” Golden Eagles head coach Theresa Echtermeyer said. “There’s been a lot of people who have contributed to what happened today. From the beginning of the season, we could tell it was a special group. The way they are to each other and to people around them, their care for each other really carried us.”

Wednesday’s game turning out to be a low-scoring affair was no surprise.

Mountain Vista and Rock Canyon both entered Wednesday’s title match without a loss and having allowed just six goals all season. The Continental League rivals also played to a scoreless draw during the regular season.

The two teams played to a scoreless tie in the first half and both defenses limited opportunities well into the second. But in the 67th minute, Mountain Vista’s Lily Boydston, who leads the Golden Eagles with 10 goals, fired a corner kick that found the feet of teammate Laney Erickson (8 goals) and then the back of the opposing team’s net.

“I’m always placed right on the keeper and I know if it comes to me, I’ve got to put anything on it to get it on the net and that’s what I did,” Erickson said. “Lily put in a fantastic ball and it came straight to me, and I got the goal. Rock Canyon’s a great team. They’re a great competitor and we knew that we had to work super hard if we were going to finish one. We had to kind of put everything on the line for that goal and that’s what we did.

“We knew it was going to be a tough one on Brenna (Shoenfelder) and we put it away.”

After the game, Erickson was named the Sportswomen of Colorado Soccer Player of the Game.

The 2024 title is the fifth in the history of the Mountain Vista girls soccer program. The Golden Eagles also won state in 2005, 2011, 2013, 2017.

Still seeking its first girls soccer title, Rock Canyon finished runner-up last season and twice in the last three years.

The Continental League has produced the last two 5A girls soccer champions.