Dakota Ridge boys lacrosse escapes with win against Lakewood

LAKEWOOD — Staying undefeated wasn’t as easy as Dakota Ridge’s boys lacrosse team thought it was going to be Friday night at Trailblazer Stadium.

The Eagles (5-0 record) trailed Lakewood 12-11 in the non-league, all-Jeffco match-up with 5 minutes left in the fourth quarter. Dakota Ridge used a 4-0 run in the final minutes to hold off the young Tigers.

“We came out slow,” Dakota Ridge senior Tyler Read admitted. “We thought we are going to come out here and absolutely blow them out. It wasn’t the result we got.”

Lakewood (2-4) was on a bit of a roll coming in riding a 2-game winning streak with 1-goal victories against Carlsbad (CA) and Grandview. Sophomore Jaxson Fontenot (six goals) and freshman Alex Winter (four goals) carried the Tigers offensively in the upset bid.

After a defensive first quarter that ended in with things knocked up 2-2, Dakota Ridge scored four unanswered goals to take command. However, Lakewood quickly answered with back-to-back goals by Fontenot to cut the Eagles’ lead to 6-5.

Dakota Ridge finished the first half with goals by junior Cam Hartman, freshman Rylan Wiemeier and senior Nolan Hartman to give the Eagles a 9-5 lead at halftime. Hartman finished with a team-high four goals. 

Lakewood caught fire in the third quarter with three unanswered goals to trim Dakota Ridge’s lead to 9-8. However, the Eagles responded late in the third quarter with goals from Read and junior Brody Spallone to give the Eagles a 11-8 lead heading into the final quarter.

“We’ve been here one or twice before,” Read said of tight games over the past few seasons. “We know when we need to step up.”

Fontenot and Winter combined for four unanswered goals to start the fourth quarter to give the Tigers their first lead since early in the fourth quarter.

“When (Lakewood) got up by one we knew we had to lock in,” Read said of the Tigers taking the 12-11 lead with 5:03 left in the fourth quarter. “We messed up. We needed to come back with a run of our own.”

Dakota Ridge got the run it needed with junior Levi Pullig, Spallone, Read and junior Landon Kalsbeck pouring in four goals in the span of less than three minutes.

“The four unanswered goals to close were huge,” Dakota Ridge coach Dak Riecke said. “(Lakewood) almost shut us out in the third quarter. Without Landon being the shining star and Zach (Hearn) saving us between the pipes, it would have been a different story.”

Kalsbeck had a pair of goals along with dominating winning face-offs. The all-state football player came in with nearly an 80 percent face-off winning percentage. He also scored the final goal of the game on a power-play.

“When you have the 4A football player of the year you just give him the ball. Tell him to go to a corner and make them miss,” Riecke said of Kalsbeck’s power-play goal with just under 2 minutes to play. 

Dakota Ridge senior goalie Zach Hearn and Lakewood senior goalie Ethan Branscom were both outstanding in the first quarter. Both also had big saves as the offensive attacks started to pick up.

“It was nice to see the we can put our heads down in gritty game and be a blue-collar Dakota Ridge and play our style,” said Riecke, who had guided the Eagles to back-to-back Class 4A Foothills League titles.

Dakota Ridge returns to Trailblazer Stadium next week to face South Jeffco rival Columbine. The Eagles and Rebels will face-off at 5 pm Wednesday, April 2.

“5-0 (record) feels good, but at the same time, every day is 1-0,” Riecke said. “Our main goal at the end is to be undefeated and have a (state) ring on our finger.”

Lakewood is also back at Trailblazer Stadium next Wednesday. The Tigers host Rock Canyon at 7 p.m. Lakewood coach Darin Denton has a fairly young team, but the performance against Dakota Ridge showed it can give some teams issues with its talented attackers up top.