Settling for 2nd again

ENGLEWOOD - St. Mary's was unable to rely on its semifinal momentum during a slow start in Saturday's 2-1 loss to top-seeded Faith Christian in the 3A girls soccer state championship game at Englewood High School's Pirate Field.

    Instead, the Pirates (15-4) finished as runners-up for the second year in a row.

    On Thursday, St. Mary's snapped Kent Denver's bid for a third title with a late goal in a 1-0 win. Kent Denver had won the past two 3A state championships, including an upset over the Pirates in last year's final.

    "That was a really huge game for us on Thursday, but I don't think it left us drained," Pirates coach Gregg Braha said. "We had a really good training session yesterday, and I think we were as ready as we could have been."

    After falling behind 2-0 in the first half, St. Mary's pulled within one in the second to give the Eagles (14-3-2) a last-minute scare.

    "We came out and just dominated that first half," Faith Christian forward Athena Lopez said. "But then at the end there, I was nervous. They were getting a lot of shots on goal, and just really had a motivation we hadn't seen."

    Senior midfielder Samantha Cardenas brought the Pirates within one with just more than 19 minutes to play. Cardenas' shot from 20 yards slipped through Faith Christian goalie Annie Richardson's hands to give the Pirates a chance.

    "It was really a tale of two halves," Braha said. "If we could have started out playing the way that we played those last 20 or 25 minutes, I think the outcome of this game would have been different."

    Despite recording four shots on goal in the last 15 minutes, the Pirates were unable to rally.

    Their best chance came with just over 12 minutes left when sophomore midfielder Christina Whitelaw hit the crossbar on a free kick.

    "I think it really helped us that we'd been here before and we knew what caliber of play we were going to face today," Braha said. "We were ready to go. I'm just not sure how much more help we could have had."

    The Eagles didn't waste any time getting on the scoreboard. Less than 3 minutes into the game, senior forward Michael Ann Karas found Lopez with a through ball up the middle.

    Lopez was all alone with Pirates goalie Katie Loof, who couldn't make the save.

    The Eagles increased their lead to two with less than 15 minutes to play in the first half. Ariane Lukens was positioned near the back goalpost, and was there to finish a Karas corner kick.

    "We were able to come out early and get that lead," Eagles coach Amber Jenkins said. "That was what made the difference."