AURORA | Maddie Lesjak had been stuffing her Grandview teammates on penalty kicks in practice and she did the same to Cherry Creek in a key moment Tuesday.
The Wolves’ senior goalkeeper saved a Bruins’ penalty kick chance with 10 minutes left in regulation at Legacy Stadium and helped her team finish off a 2-0 victory over its Centennial League nemesis.
Junior Bailey Cook scored in the first half and senior Megan Mueller tallied in the second half as coach Tari Wood’s Grandview team earned its first victory over powerhouse Cherry Creek since the 2011 season. It was the first time Lesjak, Mueller and the Wolves’ small group of seniors had tasted victory against the Bruins in their varsity careers.
In an atypically early league contest — moved forward at the behest of both teams’ coaches, who will lose several players to an ECNL tournament in the first week of April in California — Grandview (4-1-1) got on the scoreboard first in the opening half when Cook netted her first goal of the season.
The score was large given that Grandview hadn’t scored a goal against Cherry Creek in its previous two meetings — a 2-0 loss last season and 1-0 defeat in 2013 — and had only a combined total of two goals in the previous four meetings.
The lead held into the second half, when Mueller doubled the advantage with her team-leading fourth goal of the season. Mueller chased down a pass to the right of the Bruins’ goal and shot it all the way across the box, where it bounced off the far post and went in.
Cherry Creek (2-3) began to press even more with a two-goal deficit and less than 10 minutes remaining and was awarded a penalty kick chance when Mallory Plachy was knocked down in the goal box.
Lesjak snuffed out the Bruins’ hope of getting back into the game when she anticipated a shot to her left from Cherry Creek’s Libby Geraghty — the team’s leading scorer — and steered it wide with two hands and she dove towards the goalpost. She was mobbed by her teammates.
The Wolves refused to sit back in the final minutes and sophomore Nicole Lyubenko nearly added to the lead on two occasions, with one shot going just wide and another striking the crossbar before coming out.
Courtney Oakes is Sports Editor of the Aurora Sentinel. Reach him at 303-750-7555 or sports@aurorasentinel.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. FB: Aurora Prep Sentinel
GRANDVIEW 2, CHERRY CREEK 0
Score by halves:
Cherry Creek 0 0 — 0
Grandview 1 1 — 2
SCORING
First half
Grandview — Bailey Cook (Maddie Lesjak)
Second half
Grandview — Megan Mueller (Lindsi Jennings)
Goalkeepers: Grandview — Lesjak (5 shots on goal-5 saves, 1 PK-1 PK save)
