It is time for a new beginning. The girl’s lacrosse team got off to a slow start this season with a brutal non-conference schedule losing three of their first 4 games and tying another. However they have won four strait league games including today’s 18-11 win over Wheat Ridge. The momentum that the mustangs are starting to build is going to make them a tough team to beat as the season goes on.
The win over Wheat Ridge was a huge boost to the moral for the girls ending a three year losing streak to the Farmers. The game was very tight going into halftime with the Mustangs leading 8-7.
“We got off to a good start,” Kelsea Wallace (11) said. “However Maribel Gallegos played very well and kept them in the game.” Gallegos scored 4 of Wheat Ridge’s 7 goals in the first half.
It was a complete different story in the second half for the girls in blue. Chelsea Roberts scored her first goal of the game only slightly after a minute passed with 23:54 left giving the Mustangs a two point edge. In the next few minutes Kelsea Wallace got her fourth goal of the game, and shortly after that Roberts scored again to create a 4goal cushion with 20:26 remaining in the game.
Wheat Ridge’s Kelsey O’Conner got a goal with 19:10 left trying to give Wheat Ridge some life. However RV’s Phaedra Randolph answered with a goal almost two minutes later to push the score back up to four with a little under seventeen minutes in the contest remaining. Randolph’s goal started a Mustang run that the Farmers just could not bounce back from. Kelsea Wallace scored her fifth goal and gave RV a 13-8 lead with 15:04 left.
The Mustangs with a five point lead did a masterful job controlling the ball and killing the clock. They got good defensive stops on defense including a couple of Chelsea Roberts steals before Roberts scored again with 9:31 remaining.
“We did a great job of playing for each other,” Roberts (11) said. “We did the little things right which translated into doing the big things right.”
Sophomore Kristina Lucas put the nail in the coffin with a goal at the 6:23 mark. Down by seven the Farmers tried to make things interesting scoring two goals in a twenty-four second span, however with 5:50 remaining the deficit was just too much for Wheat Ridge.
Kelsea Wallace and Phaedra Randolph scored the last three goals for the Mustangs pushing the lead up to 18-10, and Wheat Ridge’s Kelsey O’Conner scored a meaningless goal with thirty-seven seconds left in the contest.
“Transition and good passing helped us get good shots,” Kelsea Wallace said.
“We played very well together as a team, a very unselfish effort from everyone,” Gabrielle Wallace (10) said.
With a 4-1 league record and a four game winning streak, teams are going to have to bring their best effort against Ralston Valley. The Mustangs will hopefully keep the momentum as they play the Arapahoe Ranked tenth in the state on Monday at Van Arsedale fields.