The R.V. boys team are going to play Loveland in the first round, at home, this coming tuesday. Ralston Valley is seeded number 7 in their bracket, and Loveland is seeded 10.

The Mustangs are perhaps in the toughest bracket of the tournament. They are in the same bracket as Regis Jesuit, Arapahoe, and Denver East. If the Mustangs are to beat Loveland on tuesday, then they will travel to Arapahoe on Friday the 26 for a rematch with the team that upset the Mustangs in the tournament a year ago.

Ralston Valley Girls on the other hand are guarenteed to play Arapahoe. The girls have been given a 6 seed with a 13-9 record, while Arapahoe is an 11 seed with a 7-16 record. The Mustangs are in the same bracket as Regis, Monarch and Air Academy. If the girls win they will play Air Academy this upcomming saturday. They wouldnt have to play Monarch, the number 1 seed, until the Elite 8 if they are lucky enough to get that far.

Phot Courtesy ESPN

All that was missing was Al Michaels yelling, “Do you believe in Miracles? YES!” Such as in the 1980 olyimpics when the United States defeated the Soviet Union at Lake Placid in New York.

Ok maybe todays 5-3 win over Canada was not to that extreme,  but it was still a huge win for the Unites States Hockey team. Now the U.S. will get at worst the second seed in the tournament and have an extra day of rest.

The United States got off to a quick start scoring on a Brian Rafalski goal :41 seconds into the first period. Team Canada tied it eight minutes later when Eric Staal got a wrist shot from the blue line to find the back of the net.

However :22 seconds later America took the lead back when Brian Rafalski scored his second goal of the evening, also unassisted. The score remained 2-1 going into the first intermission.

Canada evened the score on a rebound by Dany Heatley 3:32 into the period when it looked as if the Canadians were about to take over. At the time Canada was looking a lot faster and were able to control the puck with more efficiency the team USA.

But the U.S. kept fighting and finally started to get some shots on goal. Former Colorado Avalanche player Chris Drury gave the United States the lead back when Martin Brodeur mysteriously dove at the puck out of the crease and Drury capatolized on the open net.

Coming out of the locker room for the third period, team USA looked a lot more confident. It helped that Canada kept shooting themselved in the foot by comiting penalties. On the third penalty Canada comited in almost eight minutes the United States finally got a cusion.

Jamie Langenbrunner scored on a laser when he one timed a pass from Brian Raflaski.

The good news was that team USA had a two goal lead with 12:51 to play. The Bad news was that they were playing team Canada and there was still 12:51 left to play.

Goalie Ryan Miller played out of this world stopping shot after shot which kept frustrating the Canadian players and fans.

But perhaps the best player on the planet, Sidney Crosby, got a goal to sneak by Miller on a power play with 4:09 remaining in regulation to make the score 4-3 (same score as the Miracle on ice). The arena was electric and the Canadians could taste star spangled blood.

Canada was unloading missiles but Miller had an answer for each shot. Canada pulled their goalie with about a minute left. Team USA got a break when they pushed the puck out of the zone and a Canadian defenseman was about to handle the puck when U.S. captain made the most spectacular empty net goal of all time by wrapping his stick around the Canadian and slapping the puck in the net.

The home crowd was in scilence and shock. A few american fans could be heard chanting U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A.

U.S. players started hugging and giving high fives around Goalie Ryan Miller after the final horn sounded. United States fans continued to cheer as Canadian fans started to Boo making the win even better for American fans.

Canada outshot team U.S.A 45-22, but Miller made 42 saves, and Brodeur only could stop 17 pucks.

So the hopes are high for the americans now that they know they can play with the best. They will have a good seed and a nice shot to get to the gold metal game.

Then we can start believeing in Miracles again.

Well at least divine intervention.

RV won their next thre games becoming 3-1, however they lost their next three games and went into the holliday break with a 4-4 record.

A loss to the Lincoln Lancers after the break put RV under .500 and it would be some time before they would get over that hump.

The league schedule started the next game against Dakota Ridge. This was one of the biggest wins of the season for RV as the league records started to unfold. They were unable to take the momentum fromo this win and lost three in a row to Standley Lake, Pomona, and Denver East.

The Mustangs came back and beat Lakewood and Arvada West in their first two home games of the league season. However a 21 point loss to chatfield ended hopes of a nice winning streak.

R.V. at this time had a 7-9 record, definately not the record that Ralston is accustom to.

They came back and got a very solid win against columbine in front of a huge crowd in perhaps their most solid game of the season. But all momentum was lost after an embarassing loss to Green Mountiain. The Mustangs at this point were 8-10 and 4-4 in league.

The mustangs since that point have gone on a five game winning streak. Including beating Pomona and Standley Lake, both teams who nipped the Mustangs earlier in the season. Also a win against Rival Arvada west in the Cats house was huge for the Mustangs. And two wins agains Lakewood and Bear creek -the worst two teams in the league- got the mustangs to where they are.

Now they have a 13-10 record, and a currently half a game behind Dakota Ridge who is second in League. That win the Mustangs had in the first league game gives them the tie breaker over the Eagles. Dakota and Columbine play tonight and if Columbine wins, R.V. will have second place in league and a lot of momentum heading into the state playoffs.

With two and a half minutes remaining in the fourth quarter Columbine led the Mustangs 60-45. The crowd was growing for the Varsity game that was about to follow this game. No one was paying a whole lot of attention to the game when the run started.

R.V. hit a three pointer with a little over 2 minutes left to make the score 60-48. The mustangs got the ball back and hit another quick three to pull it to 60-51. Coach Wassinger called timeout to stop the clock and set up the defense.

The mustangs quickly fouled Columbine. The Rebel hit both freethrows to make it 62-51 with just under 2 minutes in the game. R.V. Sophomore Davis peterson then got fouled and made the shot to recieve a chance to complete a 3 point play. He missed the freethrow and the score stood at 53-62. Rv fouled again and the Columbine player made one of two freethrow attempts and the score was 63-53.

Junior Tanner Svejcar then missed a three and Peterson got the rebound to pull it to eight points. Another timeout followed. Just over a minute remained and Columbine missed two freethrows. Svejcar then got fouled on a three point attempt. He made all three freethrows. Columbine again missed a big freethrow and again R.V. took advantage of it with a shot by Sophomore Ben Metropolis. With about 45 seconds in regulation it was 63-60 columbine.

Again Columbine missed freethrows to ice the game. Tanner Svejcar took a quick shot on the other end and didn’t hit it. R.V. got the rebound when Junior David Cross hit the big three pointer to tie the game with about 25 secends left. In a span of two minutes R.V. went on a 18-3 scoring tear to tie the game.

Columbine called timeout. The gym started to get loud and support the J.V. squad. Columbine took it down the floor and couldn’t score. Svejcar threw up a three quarters court shot and the ball bairly missed as the buzzar sounded. Overtime.

Columbine scored first after hitting one of two free throws to make it 64-63. Little did they know this would be the last points scored that night. R.V. scored on their next two possesions to make it 67-64. Columbine couldn’t score again and fouled Svejcar. He missed the first made the second and it was the nail in the cofin to end the nail bitting Junior Varsity game 68-64.

Wrestling, known most for its physical nature, requires a commitment like no other. Teh Wrestling team trains for the season unlike anything i have ever heard of. Players must often lose large amounts of weight in order to wrestle at the correct weight requirement. The workouts themselves involve lost of cardio activity including, sprints, suicides, and running the stairs at Red Rocks Amphitheatre. When asked about the training, senior Greg “Bonesaw” Raffield had much to say. “When we workout it ain’t hard for me, but I look to my left and I look to my right, and they’re all bleeding, they’re all working 3000% and in that one hour of conditioning we’ll lose more weigh than most athletes do in a week.” Obviouly these players train hard and hope it will help them in their upcoming season.