Down at halftime for the first and only time all season — in the last game of the season — the Grandview girls soccer team decided to go out and have some fun in the second half of the May 25 Class 5A state championship game.
The last 40 minutes of the game at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park turned out to be the most fun the Wolves had all season in large part because of Naomi Clark, who stepped up in crunch time yet again.
The junior striker erased fourth-seeded Grandview’s one-goal deficit to No. 2 Broomfield with a goal less than five minutes into the second half, added another just over a minute later and a third in the closing minutes to seal a 3-1 victory that yielded the program’s first state championship since 2019 and sixth all-time.
“When you come back and win, especially, it’s a lot of fun,” said Brian Wood, who guided the team to a title in his first season taking over the program from his wife, Tari, who retired just prior to the end of the coronavirus pandemic-extended 2021 season.
“At halftime, one of our captains, Payton (Whitney) stood up and said ‘let’s just have fun,’ so that was the big thing,” he added. “I was actually pretty happy with how we played in the first half, we just needed to put some more balls on frame. We knew it would take at least two goals to win and they went out and got them.”
Clark’s heroic performance sent 11 seniors — including a few that were on the varsity back in 2019 — out with a state championship. The Wolves finished the season on a 15-0-1 streak dating back to its only loss, a 1-0 defeat to Valor Christian — a team it defeated in double overtime in the semifinals — on March 31.
That regular season game with Valor Christian was the first time Grandview (17-1-2) trailed at any point in a game, as it yielded a second half goal that ultimately spelled defeat, and it happened again in the opening half against the Eagles, the 2021 state champions.
Senior Maddie Brady got behind the Wolves defensive line and ran onto a ball that Grandview senior keeper Jordan Nytes came out to cut off. Brady touched the ball around Nytes and rolled it into the open net to give Broomfield the lead in a half in which it didn’t really challenge much offensively.
That lead would last into halftime, but not long into the second half.
The Wolves came out loose and energized and the equalizer would come quick.
“We went into the lockerroom and put a whole new plan together,” Clark said. “We knew we had to score or we were going to go home with second place. …I didn’t know what was going to happen until it happened.”
Gonzalez — who picked up an assist on Clark’s game-winning double-overtime goal against Valor Christian in the semifinals (story, here) — struck a perfect diagonal ball from the left wing across the field to an onrushing Clark, who coolly redirected it past Broomfield keeper Dylan Drennan into the corner of the net.
Just over a minute later and with the doubt of the Eagles becoming palpable to her, Clark poked away a pass, created space and drilled a left-footed shot from just outside the goal box that rippled the net in the top corner to put the Wolves in front for the first time.
Nytes and Grandview’s veteran defense — which yielded just five goals all season and never more than one in a game — held Broomfield at bay the rest of the way, while Clark put any comeback thoughts to rest with under two minutes left when she beat an Eagles defender to a loose ball and poked a shot into the net.
Clark finished a next-level postseason in which she scored at least one goal in four of Grandview’s five playoff victories and tallied seven in those four games to push her season total to 20.
A whopping eight of those goals served as game-winners, including three in the postseason against Legacy in the quarterfinals, Valor Christian in the semifinals and Broomfield in the title game.
“I actually said before the game ‘we’re going to win 3-1,’” said senior Molly Skurcenski, who admitted she had no idea the outcome would unfold the way that it did.
“I had faith in Nae (Clark) and she really pulled it off for us,” she added. “I can’t even describe what she did. She’s a year younger and has so many amazing things ahead. …She’s like a Level 2000.”
When it was over, the Wolves emptied their water bottles in celebration on Wood, who guided the Grandview boys team to the 5A state title in the fall and got another in the spring with a staff that included former Wolves star Nicole Lyubenko (who helped restore some old traditions like a pre-game meal at Jimmy John’s) along with Rachel Middleman.
This season’s title — which came on the heels of Grandview missing the 2021 playoffs because the coronavirus pandemic cut down size of the state tournament after the entire 2020 got wiped out — added to the ones won by the program in 2008, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2019. Of the six crowns, three of them have come at the expense of the Eagles (2015, 2018 and 2022).
Dillehay doubles up
Considering she just got a state championship ring the previous day, Isa Dillehay knows her ring size, exactly.
On May 25, the Grandview High School junior multi-sport standout slipped on the ring she got for helping the girls basketball team win the Class 5A state championship and just two months later, is in line for another.
Dillehay started and played significant minutes for coach Brian Wood’s Grandview girls soccer team, which rallied from a 1-0 deficit with three goals in the second half for a 3-1 win.
In the stands were several of her basketball teammates — Lauren and Sienna Betts and Marya Hudgins among them — who called out “That’s two!” and took pictures of Dillehay holding the soccer trophy.
“I would say they rate about the same,” Dillehay said afterwards. “I love these girls just as much as I love my basketball girls, but it is so much sweeter to win twice.”
Dillehay played a key role on the basketball team as a reserve, where coach Josh Ulitzky considered her a “gamechanger” for her ability to play defense and keep plays alive, which were key to the championship run.
The soccer title was the frosting on top of a cake that already had plenty on top of it.
“It’s been an amazing year,” said Dillehay, who led the soccer team with eight assists to go with four goals, while her flip throw-ins were a weapon for the Wolves as well.
Grandview is soccer central
The girls state final victory wrapped up a phenomenal season on the soccer pitch at Grandview, which pulled off a rare double as Class 5A state champions in both boys and girls soccer.
Coincidentally, both teams won state championship games by a 3-1 score, with the boys topping Fossil Ridge by that score on Nov. 13, 2021, at Weider Field in Colorado Springs, and the girls topping Broomfield.
Both teams also ended on remarkable streaks, as the girls went 15-0-1 in their last 16 games since suffering their own loss, while the boys finished 11-0-1 after a 4-4 start.
Wood oversaw both championships and appreciated both.
“It is amazing and it says a lot for both teams,” Wood said. “Both teams had their adversity and things we had to work through. It was cool to watch both of their developments and it was neat to watch them support each other. After the Valor game, some of the boys texted me ‘great job, but you need to work on this.’ Some of them were great ideas and wed some of them, so they contributed as well.”
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2022 CLASS 5A GIRLS SOCCER STATE CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
(4) GRANDVIEW 3, (2) BROOMFIELD 1
Score by halves:
Grandview 0 3 — 3
Broomfield 1 0 — 1
SCORING
First half
Broomfield — Maddie Brady, 32nd minute
Second half
Grandview — Naomi Clark (Meg Gonzalez), 44th minute
Grandview — Clark, 45th minute
Grandview — Clark, 78th minute
