COMMERCE CITY | In four straight games in the Class 5A postseason, one goal had been enough to deliver a victory for the Smoky Hill boys soccer team.
On Monday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, a tally in the closing seconds by junior Marquise Spinuzzi only served to avert a shutout in the 5A state championship game.
Two days after the original game was postponed by snow, Boulder became the first team to break through Smoky Hill’s strong defense in five playoff games and did so for three goals — including a two-goal burst early in the second half by Lake Brant — and the sixth-seeded Panthers came away with a 3-1 victory over the fourth-seeded Buffaloes. The victory on a frigid night on the Colorado Rapids home field delivered Boulder’s first-ever 5A state soccer title.
Javier Castruita scored for the first goal seven minutes into the game for Boulder (14-6), which was playing for the first time in the 5A final. The Buffaloes, meanwhile, were back in the 5A title game for the first time since winning the 2007 state championship.
Coach Kersten Mullan’s Centennial League champion Smoky Hill (15-2-3) team lost for the first time since Sept. 8, a 3-2 double overtime defeat at the hands of Aurora Central in the only other game it allowed three goals in 20 outings.
Spinuzzi lofted a shot over Boulder goalkeeper Henry Huettel into the net with eight seconds left as the Buffaloes averted what would have been only the second time they were kept off the scoreboard all season.
Though it was their first trip to the state championship game, the Panthers set the tone just seven minutes after the opening kickoff by doing something that hadn’t been done against Smoky Hill during the year: scoring a goal in the run of play.
Castruita — who netted Boulder’s game-winning goal in overtime in the semifinals against Fairview and also in the previous round against Rocky Canyon — accelerated away from a cluster of Smoky Hill defenders and stung a shot into the top corner of the net over goalkeeper Grayson Heath.
It was the first goal allowed by the Buffaloes in 350-plus minutes of play, stretching back to their Oct. 11 regular season finale against Cherry Creek.
Mullan wasn’t sure how her team would respond to something that hadn’t happened all year, but the Buffaloes tried to to fight back with a late push in the first half, though they weren’t able to solve Huettel.
Both teams pressed for the next goal and it went to Boulder, which gained some breathing room with a set piece goal by Brant, who had been denied on a point blank shot to set up a corner kick. Instead of lofting a cross in the air, Luis Castruita hit the ball on the ground in front of the goal to Brant, who poked it in for his first goal of the playoffs.
Brant’s second postseason score came 2:26 later when he burst up the right wing and streaked in to hit an open shot past Heath and put his team in firm control.
Smoky Hill’s Jeff Gillis — who owned two game-winners in overtime and finished as 5A’s top goal scorer with 20 — Daniel Becerra and Kevin Del Mazo kept trying to break through at the other end, but were consistently denied by a fast-closing Boulder defense.
With the outcome decided, Spinuzzi’s lob nestled in the net to get the Buffaloes on the scoreboard shortly before the final horn.
Reach Sports Editor Courtney Oakes at sports@aurorasentinel.com or 303-750-7555
(6) BOULDER 3, (4) SMOKY HILL 1
Score by halves:
Boulder 1 2 — 3
Smoky Hill 0 1 — 1
SCORING
First half
Boulder — Javier Castruita, 7th minute
Second half
Boulder — Lake Brant (Luis Castruita), 51st minute; Boulder — Brant (Mason Douillard), 53rd minute; Smoky Hill — Marquise Spinuzzi, 79th minute
Reach Sports Editor Courtney Oakes at sports@aurorasentinel.com or 303-750-7555
