ENGLEWOOD | The agony in Derek Seymour’s shoulder faded into the ecstacy of jubilant celebration Saturday.
The gritty senior forward played through the pain and came up with the biggest play for his Cherokee Trail boys soccer team, which produced a trip to the Class 5A state semifinals.
A marathon of more than 100 minutes of scoreless play between the 12th-seeded Cougars and No. 4 Legacy at Randy Penn Stadium came to an abrupt end when Seymour ripped a shot through traffic and into the corner of the Lightning net to deliver a 1-0 win.
“It feels amazing, I can’t believe I’m here,” Seymour said of the biggest — so far — of his six goals on the season. “I broke my collarbone last year and sprained a tendon in my shoulder two weeks ago, so I’m just glad to be here helping my team the best I can.”
Seymour — one of 14 determined seniors on coach Mark Hill’s Cherokee Trail — has been a huge help in the postseason.
He scored the only regulation goal in its upset shootout win over No. 5 Denver East in the second round and then got the game-winner against Legacy that lifted Cherokee Trail (12-3-3) into a Nov. 11 semifinal match against No. 1 Ralston Valley (17-0-1) at the University of Denver.
When the celebration had ebbed, Hill came over to Seymour with some knowing words.
“I told him ‘this is your moment, you’re going to get the game-winner, just keep going,’” Hill said. “It’s 100 percent fitting for him to get it with all he’s battling through.”
The game of soccer’s penchant for dealing cruel endings to teams that dominate, but don’t finish, loomed as a real possibility for Cherokee Trail.
Legacy (14-1-3) got an outstanding performance in the goal from keeper Noah Grobaski, who found many ways to thwart the Cougars in prime scoring opportunities.
In the opening half, Seymour’s long throw-in opportunity with senior Isaac Wells parked in front of the net seemed destined for a goal, but Grobaski somehow snared the loose ball with one arm as he lay on the turf.
Hill felt a bit of tightening in the pit of his stomach with each denied opportunity.
“The chances we had in the first half, it could have been a 3-0 game at halftime, but their keeper is a tremendous player,” Hill said. “Coach Alex and I were talking on the sideline that maybe it’s just not our day. We just couldn’t find the back of the net and then you worry that just one counter and they could score. But we hung on and never lost confidence.”
With junior goalkeeper Forrest Cornett (one of the big heroes of the shootout win over Denver East) and a strong backline keeping Legacy’s offense at bay, Cherokee Trail continued to attack through the closing minutes of regulation and the first 15-minute overtime period.
Finally, the Cougars’ break came.
Seymour dribbled to the edge of the Legacy goal box, then fed out to the middle of the field to Wells, who took a touch and got it back to him. Seymour settled the ball, whirled and fired a shot through a Lightning defender that beat Grobaski by a fraction of a second to get into the net.
“Center backs open their legs as soon as they see a shot, so I just went right through it and no keeper is expecting near post,” Seymour explained of only the sixth goal in 17 games allowed by Legacy.
Wells breathed a sigh of relief when the game ended in Cherokee Trail’s favor.
“I’m thinking Derek is going to get a shot on net and we keep going even if he doesn’t score, but thankfully he did,” Wells said. “I feel like we should have finished that game a lot earlier, but it ended when it needed to and we got it done.”
Next up for Cherokee Trail is undefeated Ralston Valley in a 7:30 p.m. Nov. 11 semifinal that has a berth in the 6 p.m. Nov. 15 5A state championship game at Weidner Field in Colorado Springs at stake.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2025 CLASS 5A BOYS SOCCER STATE PLAYOFFS (QUARTERFINALS)
Nov. 8 at Englewood High School
(12) CHEROKEE TRAIL 1, (4) LEGACY 0
Score by halves:
Cher. Trail 0 0 0 0 0 1 — 1
Legacy 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0
SCORING
Second overtime
Cherokee Trail — Derek Seymour (Isaac Wells)
