Pomp, circumstance and Eagles advance

HIGHLANDS RANCH» On graduation day, Mountain Vista saw its girls soccer team — the defending Class 5A champion — advance to the state semifinals with a 3-1 victory over Regis Jesuit.

Freshman Berit Brookfield, sophomore Shaye Jones and junior Katie Desrosiers scored goals Wednesday as the No. 5seeded Golden Eagles (14-3-1) built a 3-0 lead at Shea Stadium. Regis’ Riley Parsons scored with 2:43 remaining to prevent the combined shutout for starting goalie Kylee Love and backup Baileigh Baker.

Mountain Vista’s nine seniors and many of their teammates spent most of the day celebrating graduation at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison.

“We seem to have graduation and playoff games pretty much every year on the same day,” Golden Eagles coach Theresa Echtermeyer said. “You want to make sure they’re hydrated and you manage their health. You saw me getting subs in. Great team effort, team play. That’s one of the best things about this team — they all believe in each other.”

The 29th-seeded Raiders (611-1) upset Fruita and Legacy to advance to the quarterfinals. But they were never in position to beat the defending champs, who continually created chances in front of Raiders freshman goalie Hanna Cosgrove.

“We didn’t have the greatest regular season but got the wins where we needed it, squeaked into the playoffs and it was a new season. For us, the (seeding) really didn’t matter,” Regis coach Will Cropper said.