AURORA | The Cherokee Trail boys lacrosse team weathered the weather (driving snow) and an early storm from rival Grandview and survived both to win Friday night.
The Cougars watched the pumped up Wolves score the first four goals of their contest at frigid Legacy Stadium, then reeled off eight straight scores on their way to a 14-9 victory that allowed them to reclaim the Predators Cup traveling trophy.
Senior Dempsey Gibbs and junior Cooper Bernard scored four goals apiece to lead the way for coach Matt Cawley’s Cherokee Trail team, which has secured the Predators Cup in two of the past three seasons after Grandview had custody for eight straight seasons since the trophy came into the rivalry in 2014.
“I think for these guys, both of these teams being in the neighborhood, this game carries a lot of weight,” said Cawley, who guided the Cougars to a nine-goal win in 2023 in his first season with the program. “It brings 365 days of bragging rights, really. …I think both programs are on the upwards trajectory and finding a lot of success and hopefully that continues for a long, long time.”
Cherokee Trail has had a good amount of success thus far and with its second win in a row improved to 7-5 overall and 2-3 in League 4 play.
Grandview (4-8, 0-4) took back the Predators Cup last season and coach Greg Mellinger’s team got off to a fast start in the hopes of keeping it, but couldn’t keep the momentum going after a hot opening quarter. The Wolves got five goals from senior Cameron Festi and two others from junior Jack Cole.
Festi, Cole and juniors Cameron Schultz and Jack Callan (who scored on a breakaway goal on a feed from sophomore Hayden Rohrig) all found the back of the net in the first eight minutes of the opening quarter for Grandview, which looked to set the game’s tone.
The lead increased to 5-1 on Festi’s second goal of the period (on a nice pass from junior Mason Kelly), but the Cougars — who had a number of quality possessions that came up empty in the early going — turned the tables the rest of the half.
Gibbs scored three times in the quarter and Bernard had two goals — including one with 16 seconds remaining in the period — that sent the game into halftime in a 6-6 deadlock.
Cawley believed it would just be a matter of time before the fortunes shifted.
“I told them in the beginning to play small and focus on the small things, the little parts of the game that are overlooked sometimes,” he said. “We didn’t focus on it early, we focused on it late and we just had to fight through it until things were going our way.”
Things went completely Cherokee Trail’s way in the third period, as Bernard scored two more goals in the opening two minutes to keep the momentum going.
Seniors Deacon Gulli and Tanner Calicchia also scored as the Cougars seemed to have the ball the entire third period (helped by the work in the faceoff circle by senior Blake Rodriguez and junior Tate Jamison) to take a 10-6 advantage.
“I got a few going and then Cooper started sniping some corners,” Gibbs said. “We got excited and got playing like we should be.”
Gibbs and senior Thomas Nam extended the scoring streak in the fourth quarter for Cherokee Trail before Grandview snapped a scoreless drought of nearly 20 minutes of game play with a score by Festi. The Wolves scored twice in the final five minutes, but couldn’t get any closer than five goals.
“This is a big confidence builder, but there’s definitely better places to go,” Calicchia said. “We just have to keep winning and moving on.”
Next up for Cherokee Trail is a 5:30 p.m. April 23 contest at Denver South (3-6, 1-3), while Grandview plays host to Cherry Creek (11-0, 4-0) at 6 p.m. the same day at Legacy Stadium.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
CHEROKEE TRAIL 14, GRANDVIEW 9
Score by quarters:
Grandview 5 1 0 3 — 9
Cherokee Trail 1 5 4 4 — 14
First quarter: Grandview — Cameron Schultz, 10:06; Grandview — Cameron Festi, 5:30; Grandview — Jack Callan (Hayden Rohrig), 4:30; Grandview — Jack Cole (Mason Kelly), 2:02; Cherokee Trail — Bruce Pfeiffer, 0:48; Grandview — Festi (Kelly), 0:11
Second quarter: Cherokee Trail — Cooper Bernard, 11:20; Cherokee Trail — Dempsey Gibbs, 7:59; Cherokee Trail — Gibbs, 4:15; Grandview — Festi, 2:15; Cherokee Trail — Gibbs, 0:46; Cherokee Trail — Bernard (Gibbs), 0:16
Third quarter: Cherokee Trail — Bernard (Gibbs), 10:30; Cherokee Trail — Bernard (Pfeiffer), 8:35; Cherokee Trail — Deacon Gulli, 2:24; Cherokee Trail — Tanner Calicchia (Thomas Nam), 0:11
Fourth quarter: Cherokee Trail — Gibbs (Calicchia), 11:39; Cherokee Trail — Nam, 8:10; Grandview — Festi (Kelly), 7:42; Cherokee Trail — Keegan Rubenstein (Calicchia), 6:51; Cherokee Trail — Calicchia (Gulli), 6:15; Grandview — Cole (Kelly), 5:28; Grandview — Festi (Kelly), 0:27
