Dakota Ridge boys lacrosse stuns Golden in Class 4A Foothills League action

LAKEWOOD — Dakota Ridge boys lacrosse coach Dak Riecke went to a quote from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles during his halftime speech to motivate his Eagles on Wednesday night at Trailblazer Stadium. 

‘Anger clouds the mind.” — Master Splinter 

“Everyone needed to take a break. Don’t play angry,” said Riecke of his halftime speech with the Eagles trailing rival Golden 3-1 and Dakota Ridge in danger of losing a seventh straight game. “Play with a group of your buddies that love to play the game. That’s what we did.”

Dakota Ridge turned things around scoring six unanswered goals in the second half to pull away for a 7-4 victory.

“Coach Dak had one of the best halftime speeches I’ve ever heard in my life,” Dakota Ridge senior Cam Hartman said. “If that doesn’t get you fired up I don’t know what will.”

Hartman scored a pair of goals in the third quarter. His second goal with 1:17 left in the third gave the Eagles their first lead at 4-3. 

Dakota Ridge (3-8, 1-1 in Class 4A Foothills League) continued to pour it on in the fourth quarter with a pair of goals by sophomore Rylan Wiemeier and a score from sophomore Cooper Kulaski.

“This was a badly needed win,” Riecke said. “For the young squad that we have and we’ve been stricken by the injury bug. The young guys really stepped up to support tonight. That was massive.”

The Eagles are the 3-time defending league champs and captured the 4A state title a season ago with a 17-2 record. However, Dakota Ridge was hit hard by graduation before the season even started.

Junior goalie Daniel Kilmon has had huge shoes to fill with the graduation of Zach Hearn, who manned the net for the Eagles the previous two seasons. 

Golden senior Hayden Waters scored for the Demons (4-7, 1-1) in the final seconds to prevent the second-half shutout, but the Eagles still managed the upset victory.

“This is a huge win for us,” Hartman said. “We’ve been thinking we would get a few wins this last couple of weeks. We had some bad turnarounds, but we had a group hangout the other day that really brought the bond together. I think that is what helped us the most.”

Wiemeier — scored 18 goals as a freshman during the Eagles run to the state title run — admitted the losses have been rough the season, but the future is still promising for the Eagles.

“It has been a frustrating year. A lot of our players are really new,” Wiemeier said. “I think it builds a better team because they are learning and improving a lot.”

Dakota Ridge will still likely make the 24-team 4A state tournament field. Before the win Wednesday the Eagles were No. 22 in the CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index. 

“Teams might start to overlook us, but it isn’t over,” Wiemeier said. “We have a lot of players that are getting better.”

The Eagles finish the regular season against Green Mountain, Conifer and Mullen.

“We have the hardest schedule in 4A by four or five points. I do that first a reason. When we play together we are really good,” Riecke said. “What is in the locker room and on all the playbooks is, ‘Culture swallows scheme.’ We’ve got to keep this culture, family and love together.”

Golden will have to regroup quickly. The Demons face league-leading Evergreen (7-3, 2-0) at 7 p.m. Friday, April 24, at Evergreen High School.