Kulstad comes up big in shootout to deliver Broomfield 5A title

COLORADO SPRINGS>> As the lights still shone down on Weidner Field, nearly three hours after the start of the Class 5A boys soccer state championship on Saturday night, Broomfield head coach Zach Hindman tearfully embraced his predecessor in the first row of the stands.

Jim Davidson, who coached the Eagles for decades before retiring last year, owned all eight of the school’s state championships.

No. 9 now belongs to Hindman.

The bright lights only served to further illuminate junior goalkeeper Evan Kulstad and senior Marcus Von, who helped propel the Eagles to a 1-1 victory over the Angels. Broomfield made all four of the penalty kicks they were afforded after Kulstad stopped Denver East on two shots. The Eagles didn’t need to take a fifth.

“It’s just euphoric. I feel so happy for the boys,” Hindman said. “We stood on the shoulders of giants and I think the guys dug in and decided that they were going to embrace that. They did it, and they dug deep through adversity again.”

In a game with no shortage of excitement, Von struck first with a jaw-dropping bicycle kick in the 58th minute, stunning even his coach. The Angels immediately responded, only two minutes later, with a free kick to even the game and force what would eventually turn into two overtimes and PKs.

Von, once again, almost avoided that fate. Almost.

The officials awarded Broomfield a penalty kick in the 105th minute. That job belonged only to one man. Von teed the ball up, swung, and sent the ball flying into the crossbar before it clanked back out.

Hindman said he’d never seen Von miss a PK “in my life.” A higher power, however, still smiled kindly on him.

Denver East keeper Liam Sloan, who had been a brick wall in goal all night, was unable to come up with a save each time a Broomfield shooter stepped up to the line through four rounds of PKs. Kulstad stopped the first Denver East attempt, although the ball very nearly rolled past the goal line, before the post mercifully redirected it.

Kulstad’s denial on Denver East’s fifth attempt sent his teammates and coaches sprinting toward the goal box in pure ecstasy. It was the first time in his career that he’d ever had to defend against PKs. No bystander would have possibly known.

“It’s surreal, and I love it,” Kulstad said. “I’m going to love this every single moment. This is the thing that I’m going to tell everyone that I meet. I’m over the moon right now.”

4A FINAL — Battle Mountain 2, Northfield 0>> Northfield’s bid for a Class 4A three-peat fell one match short.

Leo Martinez and Cooper Skidmore scored goals in the first and second half, respectively, as Battle Mountain avenged a title-game loss to Northfield last fall with a 2-0 victory for its first state championship in 11 years.

Top-seeded Northfield (19-1) had lost just once — 4-0 at eventual 5A champion Denver East in 2022 — over the past three seasons entering Saturday’s championship match at Weidner Field in Colorado Springs.

But the third-seeded Mustangs (18-1-1) handed Northfield just its second shutout since 2021.

3A final — Colorado Academy 3, Coal Ridge 1>> Senior Simeon Woldeyohannes scored the go-ahead goal in the 60th minute, Christoff Zimmerman added a score after that, and Colorado Academy (17-1-2) claimed its third state title in four years.

Junior Caleb Mengistu scored the Mustangs’ first goal in the sixth minute. Isaac Thompson knotted the game at 1-all for Coal Ridge (12-5-3) early in the second half before Colorado Academy answered to win its seventh state crown.

2A final — Crested Butte 1, Bishop Machebeuf 0>> Sawyer Barney buried a breakaway goal off a feed from Marin Gardner with 25:30 to go as the Titans (14-2-3) claimed their fourth state title. Fourth-seeded Machebeuf (16-3-0) reached the 2A final a year after getting eliminated in the semifinals.

Class 4A football

No. 3 Montrose beat No. 14 Pueblo West, 35-28 >> Gage Wareham scored one TD and found Austin Zimmer for another as part of a 28-0 first half to lift the Red Hawks (9-2) to their sixth straight quarterfinal trip. Blake Griffin’s rushing score put Montrose ahead 35-7 late in the third quarter before the Cyclones (7-5) mounted a desperation rally that fell short.

No. 4 Broomfield beat No. 13 Fruita Monument, 30-14>> The defending 4A champion Eagles (9-2) beat Fruita Monument (8-4) for the second time this season to advance to the quarterfinals and a matchup with No. 5 Mesa Ridge.

The Wildcats pulled within two at 16-14 in the third quarter, but that was as close as they would get.

No. 8 Heritage beat No. 9 Golden, 31-18>> Heritage (7-4) punched its ticket to the quarterfinals for the second year in a row, answering a Demons TD in the first quarter with 17 unanswered points to close out the first half.

A Luc Chevalier scoring run brought Golden (9-3) within a score in the third quarter, but Heritage answered with two straight TDs to put the game away.