COLORADO SPRINGS — One golden goal wasn’t enough for Reese Morgan. It was double or nothing for the state championship.
Fossil Ridge’s senior captain had already sent her team to the Colorado Class 5A final with an overtime winner in the semis. With five seconds remaining in the first overtime period Wednesday, she unleashed a clean strike from the left side of the box, sending the SaberCats into a rain-soaked celebration at Switchbacks Weidner Field.
Twice the theatrics meant twice the glory: Fossil Ridge girls soccer clinched a repeat state title with its 2-1 win over Mountain Vista in a clash of the last two champs.
“We thought it couldn’t get more exciting than the last game,” Morgan said as a student section chanted “M-V-P” behind her.
“I just glanced at the clock, and I think there was 18 seconds left. I saw Becca (Burke) flying down the outside, and it was just like, one more shot in this half. And I guess it ended up going in. Did not feel real at all.”
Morgan’s heroics on the biggest stage will be remembered most back home in Fort Collins. But coach Cyrus Salehi will look back fondly on her senior season in ways that transcend the championship-winning goal. He’ll remember a 4-3 win against Rocky Mountain back in April.
“We played a garbage, dumpster-fire game,” he said. “And she just said, ‘You know what, I’m gonna get two goals, two assists. I’ll just take the game on my back.’ And she was sick that day. It was a Jordan game for her. And she dominated.”
He’ll remember her binding presence on a varsity team that was finding its way this year with nine freshmen.
He’ll remember the joy he brought her on this rainy, slippery Wednesday night, two hours from home, and a week after he lost his mother.
“She is a warrior,” Salehi said. “She brings a strong, quiet, gentle yet fierce leadership that we have needed. She is awesome. … When we’ve needed her, she shows up.”
About those freshmen: One of them, Burke, made the setup play on Morgan’s golden goal and received all the credit from Morgan afterward. The freshman also scored the opener for Fossil Ridge, only 86 seconds into the match.
“The state doesn’t understand,” Salehi said. “We’re here. … We’re reloading next year.”
The SaberCats unwittingly, and not all that intentionally, parked the bus with their early lead. Mountain Vista’s scoring chances started innocently enough. But they kept escalating. Late in the first half, Fossil Ridge goalie Olivia Rice narrowly won a footrace to the edge of the box, diving on the ball and securing it to ensure an equalizing opportunity stayed tantalizingly out of Avery Beer’s reach.
The conditions encouraged physicality. Mountain Vista senior Hannah Carlson made a perfect slide tackle as Fossil Ridge was loading up for a shot from the top of the box. Both sidelines chirped at the whistle as play tightened up in the second half. Fossil Ridge spent most of its time in the back third, fending off corner kicks and other threats.
“They definitely had us on our heels for a while,” Morgan said. “Before the game, we were like, the game is gonna ebb. There’s gonna be ups and downs. You just have to stick with it.”
Their defense systems finally faltered under relentless pressure with 17 minutes to go. Rice made a tip save on an initial scorching shot, sending the ball ricocheting off the crossbar and back into the box. A rebound header attempt on net was also pushed away into dangerous territory, where a Fossil Ridge defender cleared the ball off her teammate’s hand.
A referee’s hand went up. Bedlam ensued. Inadvertent hand balls in the box aren’t necessarily automatic penalties, but the refs awarded Mountain Vista with a spot kick for this one. Junior Emersyn Linder calmly cashed in with 16:20 left.
It turned out to be the wake-up call Fossil Ridge needed.
“Our scout and everything we drew up, they did about only half of it. We were frustrated at halftime. Like, girls, you’re not drawing up our game plan. You’re not doing it. And they’re like, ‘We know. We know.’ We couldn’t build. We couldn’t connect. We were giving them the middle third. … To their credit, they capitalized. They were scrappy. They tied it up. And I think that jump-started us. Because once they scored, what was the momentum for the rest of the game?
“It was like we got punched in the mouth, it woke us up, and we won the game.”
