AURORA | Rangeview coach Vic Strouse was thrilled his team got the No. 16 seed in the Class 5A girls state soccer playoffs.
The same seed hadn’t worked out last season for the Raiders, who were upset by visiting No. 17 Highlands Ranch in overtime, but a first-round home game was the reward for a regular season in which they won the East Metro Athletic Conference and piled up 12 victories.
Surely the result would be better this time around, right? To Strouse’s chagrin, Rangeview’s season ended in near carbon-copy fashion, as 17th-seeded Doherty got a goal in the 86th minute for a 3-2 overtime victory at soggy Aurora Public Schools Stadium.
Juniors Madison Garst and Darian Simpson scored three minutes apart in the first half to give the Raiders a lead, but the Spartans got even midway through the second half and won it six minutes into the extra 15-minute overtime when A.J. Blount floated a shot from 30 yards out over the head of Rangeview goalkeeper Kaylee Szuch.
Doherty (9-3-3) advanced to the second round, where it will go against top-seeded Mountain Vista, which hammered Rangeview’s fellow EMAC member, Prairie View, 8-0 in their opening contest.
The junior-dominated Raiders, who finished the season 12-4, were again left to examine what went wrong.
Rangeview fell behind 1-0 just 16 minutes into the game when Alexis Charles buried a shot, but junior striker Megan Campbell became a factor as the Raiders got the next two goals before the end of the half.
First, she drew a foul 5 yards above the goal box in the 26th minute that ended with Garst tucking the free kick attempt nicely into the top corner of the net for her sixth goal of the season.
Then, Campbell calmly volleyed a rebound — which came after Rikki Quintero’s header off a corner kick was deflected — to Simpson, who put it past Doherty goalkeeper Taylor Denny from point blank range.
The Spartans grew desperate and began to pepper Szuch with shots on goal from long distances, including a drive by Madison Furbush that found its way through traffic and into the net for the tying goal in the 65th minute.
Numerous attempts to get Campbell the ball in space didn’t work for the Raiders, while the Spartans remained happy to put the ball on frame from distance.
Early in overtime, Blount nearly scored on a header, but popped it over the goal.
A few minutes later, her long shot eluded Szuch as she backpedaled into the net and ignited a celebratory dogpile in the middle of the field the Doherty bench mobbed her. Szuch sat on the ground in the goal for a minute before passing the celebration on her way back to the bench.
Notes: Rangeview was one of three Aurora teams to lose in overtime in the first round of playoffs. Eighteenth-seeded Grandview fell 2-1 to No. 15 Rocky Mountain in overtime at Fossil Ridge High School, while 25th-seeded Regis Jesuit suffered a 2-1 loss to two overtimes to No. 8 Fort Collins at French Field.
Reach Sports Editor Courtney Oakes at sports@aurorasentinel.com or 303-750-7555
(17) DOHERTY 3, (16) RANGEVIEW 2 (OT)
Score by halves:
Doherty 1 1 1 — 3
Rangeview 2 0 0 — 2
SCORING
First half: Doherty — Alexis Charles, 16th minute; Rangeview — Madison Garst, 26th; Rangeview — Darian Simpson (Megan Campbell), 29th minute; Second half: Doherty — Madison Furbush, 65th minute; Overtime: Doherty — AJ Blount, 86th minute
