It was an abnormally early end to the girls soccer season for Aurora teams in 2023, but that didn’t reflect the talent present in city squads.
Only three programs — Grandview, Cherokee Trail and Regis Jesuit — qualified for the Class 5A state playoffs and none of the three made it past the opening round, creating a rare occasion where the last 16 teams included no city representation.
Despite the team results, the individual talent spread around the city remained at a high level. It is reflected in the composition of the 2023 Sentinel Colorado All-Aurora Girls Soccer Team — which is selected by the Sentinel in conjunction with balloting of city coaches — which includes a mix of talent from multiple programs.
Grandview won the 2022 Class 5A state championship — the program’s sixth all-time title — but suffered a first-round exit this season with a loss to Chatfield on penalty kicks as the massive amount of change due to graduation proved too much to sustain the program’s recent tradition of deep postseason runs.
Coach Brian Wood’s Wolves finished the season 9-6, which included a 5-0 mark against other Aurora programs after wins against both of the other two playoff qualifiers (Cherokee Trail and Regis Jesuit) as well as Eaglecrest, Smoky Hill and Overland by a combined score of 30-6.
Grandview featured the area’s biggest difference maker in senior Naomi Clark. The hero of the 2022 state title game — when she scored a hat trick in the second half of Wolves’ win over Broomfield — signed with Washington State and went on to earn Centennial League Player of the Year and CHSAA All-State first team honors as in her senior season.
Clark drew the focus of opposing defenses, but still couldn’t be stopped. She finished tied for the most points among Aurora players with 44, which came via 18 goals — which led the Centennial League — and four of them were game-winning scores. Clark (who finished with 45 career varsity goals) also tallied eight assists, which tied her for second-most among locals.
Two members of Grandview’s 5A state championship-winning girls basketball team also earned spots on the All-Aurora first team in senior Isa Dillehay in the midfield and freshman Lexi Yi on defense.
With a lot of change in the lineup for Grandview, Dillehay was an extremely steady presence in the midfield and the fruits of playing two varsity sports honed her competitive nature. She came right off the basketball floor and scored a goal and had three assists in the Wolves’ win over Regis Jesuit and finished with five goals and five assists on the season to tie for second on the team with 15 total points.
Yi came up big in key moments on the basketball floor and she played with a purpose in her debut season on the soccer pitch as well. With experience as a forward, Yi knew how to make runs from the back when the time was right and she finished when she got the chance. She tied with Crystal Sesma for second on the team with six goals — including one in the postseason loss to Chatfield — while her goals against Eaglecrest and Rocky Mountain ended up winning games.
Yi also notched two assists and helped add toughness to a backline that experienced a lot of change and also had a freshman in the goal to replace graduated all-state first team performer Jordan Nytes. Grandview allowed a total of 29 goals in 15 games.
Offense also came in bunches from Regis Jesuit junior midfielder Lexi Meyer, who tripled her production from the previous season in terms of goals for coach Will Cropper’s Raiders, who finished 7-9 and qualified for the 5A postseason.
Coming off a winter season playing basketball, Meyer started fast on the pitch and she finished with 15 goals, which put her in a tie for third among city players and two of them won games (vs. Cherry Creek and Ponderosa). She had hat tricks against Highlands Ranch and Chaparral and two-goal contests against Centennial League powers Cherry Creek and Grandview.
Meyer — who decommitted from the University of Oklahoma and is now pledged to the University of Alabama — also racked up eight assists for the second straight season and finished in a five-way tie for second among Aurora players in that category.
Eaglecrest started the season 6-0-1 and finished 7-6-1, as coach Ashley McKillips’ team had some central forces in the Boex sisters: Micala, a senior, and sophomore Annika, who both made the All-Centennial League first team. They were the most high-scoring duo on any team in the area, as they combined for 74 points and accounted for nearly 60 percent of the goals for the Raptors, who led all Aurora teams with 51.
Micala — a Northern Arizona University recruit — played in a variety of places for Eaglecrest and she finished with a team-high 15 goals, which were nearly double the eight she scored in the 2021 season. She tallied five goals against Rangeview and also recorded hat tricks against Brighton and Vista PEAK, while she added three assists.
Annika was the only area player to finish in double figures in both goals and assists, as she tallied 14 goals to go with a city-best 13 assists, a huge jump from a freshman season that saw her score three times with four assists. Annika had a five-goal outing against Overland, had a hat trick against Rangeview and two goals against both Brighton and Prairie View. Her value with possession and direction of play for the Raptors was high.
Eaglecrest also was the second-stingiest team defensively among Aurora teams as it yielded just 23 goals in 14 contests. Senior Katie Edwards led a backline for Eaglecrest that had five shutouts in 14 games and ceded just 23 goals. The All-Centennial League second team performer chipped in a pair of goals — one on a successful penalty kick when she got the occasion to go forward.
Cherokee Trail got into the postseason in less dramatic fashion than in 2022 (when it had to win its last game to make it in) as coach Jose Rosales’ team notched 10 victories and finished as the Centennial League regular season runner-up before a one-goal opening round loss to Rocky Mountain.
Junior Kiana Sparrow played a big role in that success, as she was deployed in a variety of places and contributed everywhere she ended up. On a team that had a lot of offensive balance (16 players had at least one goal), Sparrow scored eight times and the Cougars won all six games in which she had at least one goal. She added an assist on her way to All-Centennial League first team honors.
The Cougars also yielded the fewest goals of any team in Aurora as they gave up just 20 in 16 games, which was 12 fewer they gave up the previous season in the same amount of games. There were two components to the defense that made the All-Centennial League first team in senior defender Georgia Shattuck and sophomore goalkeeper Ruby Arsenault.
Shattuck — one of the team’s captains — did outstanding job in the back helping Cherokee Trail diffuse some of the top offenses around and post seven shutouts with three other games with one goal allowed. She also got a chance to get on the scoresheet offensively when she scored a pair of goals against Overland.
Arsenault didn’t play every game in the net for the Cougars, but she drew the biggest of assignments and came through in key spots, such as defending a goal lead to earn Cherokee Trail a rare victory in Centennial League play over Cherry Creek. She also posted a shutout against Regis Jesuit in the season opener.
Aurora’s co-points leader along with Clark was swift Rangeview senior forward Caden Surratt, who notched a city-best 19 goals, which accounted for nearly 60 percent of the season output for coach Vic Strouse’s Raiders (6-9), who played in the City League for the first time.
Surratt racked up her goals with five performances of two or more goals — all wins for the Raiders — with a season-high of six coming against Overland and four of her scores were game-winners. The All-City League first team pick also registered six assists to finish second on her team.
Courtney Oakes is Sentinel Colorado Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports
2023 SENTINEL COLORADO ALL-AURORA GIRLS SOCCER TEAM
FIRST TEAM
Forward: Naomi Clark, sr., Grandview; Kiana Sparrow, jr., Cherokee Trail; Caden Surratt, sr., Rangeview; Midfield: Annika Boex, soph., Eaglecrest; Micala Boex, sr., Eaglecrest; Isa Dillehay, sr., Grandview; Lexi Meyer, jr., Regis Jesuit; Defense: Katie Edwards, sr., Eaglecrest; Georgia Shattuck, sr., Cherokee Trail; Lexi Yi, fr., Grandview; Goalie: Ruby Arsenault, soph., Cherokee Trail
SECOND TEAM
Forward: Karen Peprah, sr., Hinkley; Jaslyn Sanders, sr., Smoky Hill; Crystal Sesma, sr., Grandview; Midfield: Maria Herrera, jr., Gateway; Madalynn Hopkins, jr., Grandview; Brooke Roth, jr., Smoky Hill; Adeleine Walick, jr., Regis Jesuit; Defense: Celeste Anaya, sr., Gateway; Lizabeth Barrera, sr., Vista PEAK; Andi Hiatt, jr., Cherokee Trail; Goalie: Hannah Flores, jr., Eaglecrest
HONORABLE MENTION
Praise Akpokiere, jr., Eaglecrest; Amairani Penaloza Arriaga, jr., Aurora Central; Kee Awi, jr., Gateway; Sydney Azuero, sr., Grandview; Elyse Bailey, soph., Smoky Hill; Jahayra Bernal, sr., Gateway; Hazel Bonansinga, soph., Rangeview; Edith Cardoza, sr., Hinkley; Jemely Cruz, jr., Overland; Edith Elias, sr., Vista PEAK; Emily Garcia-Munoz, sr., Aurora Central; Ixcel Soto Gonzalez, jr., Hinkley; Michelle Gonzalez, soph., Overland; Ryan Hagg, jr., Regis Jesuit; Nicole Heber, jr., Eaglecrest; Emme Kennedy, soph., Smoky Hill; Clara Kulick, sr., Regis Jesuit; Brooke Metcalfe, soph., Regis Jesuit; Verenice Pulido, soph., Aurora Central; Britney Rodriguez, sr., Rangeview; Jenny Ruiz, soph., Aurora Central; Rut Salinas, jr., Hinkley; Citlali Soto Sanchez, sr., Vista PEAK; Symphony Schell, sr., Grandview; Kaylynn Stewart, jr., Vista PEAK; Emily Villagomez, sr., Vista PEAK; Julia Tierney, sr., Regis Jesuit; Abby Winsor, sr., Cherokee Trail; Jazlyn Yomona, jr., Rangeview