HIGHLANDS RANCH — It had a little of everything.
It was the regular season finale of two league champions.
It was a meeting between two teams that should seriously challenge for the Class 5A state championship.
It had a good crowd at Shea Stadium.
And, fittingly, it had a 46-minute weather delay (lightning), symbolic of another testing spring to the end.
Ultimately, Mountain Vista got past Arapahoe 14-11, a game that was part shootout and fully entertaining.
The host Golden Eagles, who trailed only briefly, moved to 14-1, the best record in 5A.
“We played sloppy offensively the past few weeks,” Mountain Vista sophomore Ryan Nunes said. “We’ve just concentrated on running our offense. We ran through it tonight and when we do, stuff gets open, we get good shots and it was there.”
Nunes scored four goals, including the first two of the game for the Golden Eagles, and a key one with 7:11 to play that proved to be the game-winner as the Warriors (12-3) continued to hang around.
Jake Frane also scored four times for Mountain Vista. Jake Harvey and Colin Munro each scored three times.
Golden Eagles coach Jamie Munro called Arapahoe “a great team that gave us everything they had. I’m just glad we bounced back from an early deficit and played well.”
Mountain Vista, which won the Douglas County league, has been the third seed in the postseason fields the past two seasons and has a best finish of advancing to the semifinals. Cracking into the sport’s heavyweights such as Cherry Creek and Regis Jesuit, Coach Munro knows, is difficult, although “we’re comparable.”
Chase Douglas and Keenan Moffitt each scored three times for the Warriors, who won the Centennial.
The playoff brackets are due early next week.
Neil H. Devlin: @neildevlin or ndevlin@denverpost.com
