COMMERCE CITY — Jefferson Academy girls soccer wasn’t going to repeat the heartbreak that defined the end to its 2022 season. From the moment the clock began winding down in the second half of the Class 3A state title game on Tuesday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, the Jaguars made sure of it.
In the end, the top-seeded Jaguars pulled out a dominant, 3-0 victory over No. 3 Manitou Springs to claim the crown, all but reversing the sting they felt a year earlier, when Kent Denver ended their title hopes with an identical decision on the same pitch.
That, at least, was the message the veterans relayed to their underclassmen when the Jaguars and Mustangs sat scoreless at halftime.
“We were sitting in that locker room and all of our seniors looked at the team and we just said, ‘Guys, we know how awful it feels to have regrets at Dick’s. We’re not doing that again,’” senior forward Kate Runyon said. “I think that it fueled us a lot. We wanted this bad. We wanted it for us, for our coach (Matt Cassell) in his first year, for our fans.”
Runyon herself played a key role in reversing the tides that sat stagnant throughout the first 40 minutes of play, netting each of the Jaguars’ first two goals in the 48th and 58th minutes. Fifteen minutes later, senior midfielder Allie Jo Kirkpatrick ended any hopes of a Mustang comeback with her own score from about 15 yards out.
All Jefferson Academy had to do was relax. It knew how to show up when it mattered most.
“We’ve been here. We’ve been on the field. We knew the size of the field. We breathed, and we never do that. We actually slowed down for a minute and we just all were there for each other,” senior keeper Helen Stegner said. “This was the most prepared I’ve felt going into a game. We’ve done everything we had to do and we were ready to come out. It’s amazing. We knew how it felt last year and we weren’t going to let that happen again.”
The final victory, while a relief to the ladies who experienced the defeat last year, felt like the inevitable conclusion to 3A girls soccer after the Jaguars dominated nearly every 3A opponent they faced. Their only two losses through 20 tries came at the hands of Colorado Academy — who Jefferson Academy defeated 3-1 in the semifinals — and 5A Ralston Valley.
Coach Cassell, who made the switch from the boys’ side of things, made sure the team’s culture and belief in itself would get the ladies to their long-coveted acme, where they’d hoist up the championship trophy that’s evaded them for the past 12 months.
They rarely faltered in that mission this spring.
“These girls have worked so hard and they deserve this,” Cassell said. “The cool thing is, we’ve talked a lot about this — they get to leave as a state champion, right? Nobody can ever take that from them no matter what. Talent aside, it takes a lot to get here.”
