“Next woman up” has come to define the early season for Class 5A’s fourth-ranked Fairview girls lacrosse, and the Knights’ 18-10 home win over No. 12 Cherry Creek on Monday was just a microcosm of that theme.

In the absence of the McCollester twins, Gabby and Tessa — who suffered ACL injuries nine months apart — as well as starting goalie Katie Ryan, the Knights have enjoyed maximum production from their underclassmen.

Freshman attacker Emmy Leonard led the scoring initiative against the Bruins, netting five goals, and she enjoyed significant backup from her freshman teammate, midfielder Josie Craytor, who chipped in four more.

It was senior attacker Abby Day, however, who led the team in overall points with three goals and four assists. Last year, the McCollester twins accounted for 95 of the Knights’ goals.

“It’s the trust we have in each other,” Day said. “A lot of these freshmen have looked up to us and asked us questions about what we can do. Gabby and Tess, even on the sidelines, they’ve been coaching us in practice on how to take the draw and what we can do better, passing off draw sticks. Everyone’s trying new positions.”

Head coach Kelsey Sheridan, who led the Knights to the Class 5A state championship game last year and is no stranger to deep playoff runs, thinks this may be the deepest team she’s ever had. She expects Ryan to return to the crease in a few weeks but has been pleased with how sophomore goalie Annabelle Talbot has been handling the pressure in the meantime.

“It took a little bit of adjusting, especially because Gabby takes all our draws,” Sheridan said. “It’s been awesome to see other kids step up, especially our freshmen who are new to varsity and also stepping up and taking draws and expecting to score. I think our depth is really good this year.”

The Knights fired on all cylinders, building up an 8-1 lead through the start of the second quarter, before things started to get interesting — sort of.

The Bruins tried to mount a comeback through the last few minutes of the first half and took advantage when the Knights went down two girls due to yellow cards. Cherry Creek capitalized with two quick goals to stop their defensive bleeding, but Fairview’s own exceptional defense ended the half with three women down — with one last yellow card — and still out-played the Bruins.

The Knights led 11-5 at the half and didn’t relent after that. No matter how hard the Bruins tried to claw their way out of the hole Fairview dug for them, they never came closer than six scores. The Knights improved to 5-1 with the victory, having only lost to No. 3 Regis Jesuit, and will now prepare to travel to No. 6 ThunderRidge on Friday.

Nobody said their schedule would be easy, but the Knights are sure making it look that way.

“I feel like it’s showing all of the underdogs and how much our team has expanded and its growth,” Day said. “Everyone is working really hard to adapt to new positions, especially on the draw (control). We’re having like three or four girls try out the draw every day, and it’s really fun because it makes all of us play different positions and each part, and I feel like we’re growing every practice.”