COLORADO SPRINGS – The year – 2025 – will never be forgotten in the history of Loveland Classical.
The girls’ soccer team made that a reality on Wednesday night.
The Lions won the inaugural state championship in school history by muscling past Flatirons Academy 3-0 in the Class 2A girls’ state championship match at Switchbacks Weidner Field.
“We played our hearts out these last couple of games and I’m just so proud of us all, and it feels amazing to accomplish this,” said Emily Carman, who scored the game's final goal. “This year we just really stepped up. This means so much (to win the first state championship in school history). All the sports in our school have been working so hard and it just feels so special to be the first team to make it (to be state champions).
“I really feel like we are setting the bar high for our athletes.”
Loveland Classical, the No.6 seed, capped its magical season with a 16-3 record and beat Flatirons Academy for the second time in 2025. The first was a 5-3 decision on April 12.
Loveland Classical became a member of CHSAA in 2017.
Flatirons Academy, the No. 8 seed, ended its slate with a 13-4-2 record. Flatirons Academy was aiming for back-to-back state titles as it defeated Buena Vista 2-1 in double overtime to claim the 2A state championship a year ago.
Loveland Classical wasted no time in finding its groove.
In the first minute of the match – 39 seconds into the match to be exact – junior Abby Ruppert took a shot outside the box and thanks to a tricky bounce past Flatirons goalie Sydnie Mangel, the score was 1-0.
“We knew that if we let them score first, they have a really good defense, so we knew we needed to get a goal in right away so we couldn’t give them a chance to play defense,” said Carman, her team’s lone senior. “It really meant a lot that we were able to score right away, and after that just keep hitting them, and we got two right away. I think that gave us momentum for the game, which was really good.”
The Lions kept roaring and added their second goal thanks again to a boot by Ruppert in the seventh minute.
“We were pushing really hard at the beginning, and we decided that we were going to win,” said Ruppert, who had a team-best 26 goals this season. “We pushed really hard, and we won because of our coach (Juan Orozco). He’s an amazing coach and he took us this far. I also think this was a team victory. We all worked so well together.”
The uphill battle became a little more daunting for Flatirons Academy when Mangel was forced to exit the game after suffering a facial injury during a bang-bang with Kaelyn Doan with 12 minutes left in the first half. Mangel was replaced by freshman Sophia Patrick.
In the second half in the 62nd minute, Carman broke loose and used some nifty footwork to fool Patrick and smash the ball into the back of the net at close range.
“I’m not going to play in college, so this was a really good way to end my soccer career,” said Carman, who finished the season with 16 goals.