In a season in which the Aurora area bowed out of the Class 5A girls soccer state playoffs after just one round, the talent was spread out.
The 2025 Aurora Sentinel All-Aurora Girls Soccer Team — which is picked by the Sentinel in conjunction with balloting of Aurora area coaches — includes a wide variety of representation.
The city’s three state playoff qualifiers — Cherokee Trail, Grandview and Regis Jesuit — lead the way in selections, while Eaglecrest, Overland and Smoky Hill also have picks.
Cherokee Trail led Aurora programs in the win column with a strong 9-4-3 record during a campaign that ended with an overtime road loss to Columbine in the 5A playoffs.
Coach Jose Rosales’ team — which finished as the Centennial League runner-up behind Cherry Creek — with talent in several places on the field. The Cougars had two first team all-league performers that led the way in junior Sam Garofalo on defense and junior Makayla Sellyei in the midfield.
Garofalo played a key role on a defensive unit that allowed an Aurora-low 17 goals for the season, while she countered that with a whopping eight of her own. Not coincidentely, Cherokee Trail finished 7-0-1 when she scored. Sellyei earned a share of the team lead with eight goals of her own, including a hat trick against Vista PEAK Prep and both goals in an Arapahoe Derby victory over rival Grandview.
Longtime coach Brian Wood coached his final season with Grandview and guided the Wolves to a 5-8-3 record that included five one-goal defeats. Grandview allowed a paltry 22 goals for the season with a strong defense led by two All-Centennial League first team performers in senior Ivy Daniel in the goal and sophomore Allie Smith on defense.
Daniel — who is bound for Gordon College — led Aurora keepers with a 1.213 goals against average as she played 1,187 of the 1,200 minutes played by the Wolves. She finished with four shutouts and allowed one goal two other times.
Smith most certainly helped out with the defensive effort, but she also provided some offensive punch on a team that needed every goal it could get. Smith — who took the vast majority of the team’s corner kicks — ended up as the team leader in goals with six, which included a converted penalty kick, while she added an assist.
In the first season under Rick Wolf as head coach (who stepped in to take over for longtime coach Will Cropper), Regis Jesuit finished with a 7-5-4 record and lost a home playoff game to Fairview. It was a massive improvement on the 2-11-2 mark from 2024.
Leading the way for the Raiders was senior midfielder Brooke Metcalfe, a Division I signee with Gonzaga. The attacking Metcalfe earned a spot on the All-Continental League first team as well as the All-Aurora top unit after a season in which she tallied seven goals and also dished out three assists.
Joining Metcalfe on the All-Aurora first team from Regis Jesuit on the backline is senior Riley Shea, another All-Continental League first team performer. With help from Shea (also a captain), the Raiders yielded just 20 goals, which was half the number from the previous season. Regis Jesuit finished with six shutouts.
The area’s leading scorer played for Overland in senior Victoria Perozo, who spent time all over the field for the Trailblazers. Perozo racked up 17 goals during a season in which she earned All-City League first honors. Perozo added a handful of assists to boost her season point total to 35, second-best among local players. She either scored or assisted on 22 of 27 total goals for Overland (6-9), which doubled its win total from last season.
Rangeview tallied 31 goals on the season and the majority came from the combination of senior Hazel Bonansinga and freshman Zulekya Perez, who tallied 28 points apiece.
Bonansinga earned All-City League second team distinction and also a spot on the All-Aurora first team with 11 goals (one behind Perez for the team lead), while she paced coach Vic Strouse’s Raiders (5-8-1) with six assists.
Eaglecrest had a drop in the win column, but still had one of the area’s top midfield talents in senior Annika Boex, an All-Centennial League first team performer. Boex is headed to Northern Arizona to play with her older sister, Micala.
Smoky Hill also had one of the area’s top midfielders in sophomore Lauren Nesbitt, an All-Centennial League first team pick. Nesbitt tallied 10 goals and had six assists for 26 points.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
