5A Girls Lacrosse: Valor Christian Captures First-Ever Girls Lacrosse State Title

DENVER – The composure of the Valor Christian girls lacrosse team finally eroded Friday night at the end of the Class 5A state championship game.

It was calm and level-headed play that allowed the Eagles to work their way back from an early multi-goal deficit against quality opponent ThunderRidge and execute in clutch situations in the second half of a tight ballgame.

But once the clock at Peter Barton Stadium hit all zeroes, sticks went flying and excitement exploded out after a 12-8 victory that landed the program’s first state championship.

“The word we’ve been using all season long is discipline,” said head coach Sam Geiersbach, who is in her first season. “Our team did an awesome job, no swinging, no cards and really playing hard. We fell into a little bit of a rut, but they knew they could do it. They knew this was their year and they just stayed calm and composed.”

The “rut” Geiersbach mentioned were early struggles that had befallen Valor Christian (17-1) at times throughout the season and required a correction of course in games.

That was needed again against ThunderRidge (15-3), which came out on first in the opening quarter, as senior Rocquette Allen had a hat trick. She scored again after two goals from teammate Lynsey Dondero to give the Grizzlies a 7-3 lead and a lot of momentum.

The Eagles showed the steady demeanor and got back on track and evened the game up with two goals in the final 30 seconds from junior Julia Mangan to tie the game at halftime.

Even again at 8-8 in the third quarter, Valor Christian got what turned out to be the winning goal from sophomore midfielder Olivia Laselle early in the quarter.

“I trust my feeders and they got it to me and I just shot it, pretty simple,” Laselle said.

That goal held up as the Eagles had tons of possession, didn’t turn the ball over and managed to be first to every groundball and ricochet in the key stages of the game.

The Eagles — who defensively held ThunderRidge to less than double-digit goals for only the second time this season — added three more goals in the final quarter while methodically milking time off the clock until they could actually celebrate.

“That excitement started to get to us, but we had to keep it composed,” Laselle said. “Our coach always tells us we can’t go above our head, so no matter how much excitement we were feeling in those last couple of minutes, we had to keep it composed.”

Once it was finally over, Valor Christian players got the chance to celebrate and they did.

“This group of seniors has had a tough road and battled a lot of adversity, so I’m really, really proud of them,” Geiersbach said. “They are an amazing group of people and they finished the job.”