Myers’ late header propels Fossil Ridge to title win

CLASS 5A GIRLS CHAMPIONSHIP>> FOSSIL RIDGE 1, CASTLE VIEW 0

Castle View’s Adelaide Ford, left, and Fossil Ridge’s Amelia Larson go after the ball in the first half of the girls Class 5A state soccer championship game at Weidner Field in Colorado Springs on Wednesday night. ANDY CROSS — THE DENVER POST

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By Kyle Newman

knewman@denverpost.com

COLORADO SPRINGS >> In the battle of the Sabercats, Fossil Ridge broke through for the school’s first girls soccer championship.

Fossil Ridge edged Castle View on Wednesday at Weidner Field, 1-0, in the Class 5A title game. The SaberCats from Fort Collins used a header by Teagan Myers late in the second half to fend off the Sabercats from Castle Rock in a well-played showdown between two evenly matched teams making their first title game appearances.

“When I took over the program last year, they hadn’t reached past the second round in about 13 years,” Fossil Ridge head coach Cyrus Salehi said. “One of the things we wanted to rebuild and rebrand was a gritty, selfless mentality because in the playoffs, talent doesn’t win. Culture, grit and scrapiness wins.

“... This has been a soft, sissified program for too many years. When I came in, what I said was we were going to bring the fight to a lot of players, to a lot of teams. We were going to have grit. We’re going to take teams by surprise because they’re going to think it’s the same Fossil. And we were not.”

Castle View had the game’s first true scoring chance about 12 minutes in, when Fossil Ridge junior keeper Shay Masters came out to block a shot at the top of the box, and then found herself out of position when Castle View repossessed the ricochet. But the Fossil Ridge defense came up with a couple of key blocks to keep the game at 0-0.

Halfway through the first half, Fossil Ridge had its first chance when junior Lily Wale fired a shot from inside the box that went just over the crossbar. Fossil Ridge continued to push the tempo down the stretch of the half, but couldn’t cash in as Castle View sophomore keeper Elly Bowers stood tall and her defense prevented any unobstructed looks.

Both keepers continued to impress early in the second half. Bowers raced up in the box to cut off some would-be chances before they could develop, while on the other end, Masters leapt up and snared a corner kick before it could find a Castle View head.

With 13:07 left, the stalemate was on the cusp of cracking when Castle View was called for a handball in the box. That set Wale up for a penalty kick. Bowers dove right and blocked it, then grabbed the loose rebound before more Fossil Ridge players could swarm in and touch it.

But Wale had her redemptive moment about six minutes later when her perfectly placed cross found the head of Myers. The senior headed it in off the turf, off Bowers’ diving hand and into the net for a 1-0 Fossil Ridge lead with about eight minutes left.

“We have been resilient all year,” Salehi said. “It’s been SUMO — Shut Up, Move On. As soon as that (missed PK) happened, I said, ‘Okay. This is our opportunity to get what’s next.’ And we got what’s next.”

A couple of minutes later, Castle View had a great look at an equalizer, but couldn’t put it home. Masters made a diving save off a free kick just outside the box, then Castle View’s Jaya Dern rushed in and kicked the rebound just over the net. The Fossil Ridge defense did the rest to earn the trophy.