Battle Mountain girls lacrosse moves on with 13-4 win

The Huskies give — and the Huskies taketh away.

After gifting No. 24 Telluride a close first half in Tuesday’s 4A state tournament first round game in Edwards, the No. 9 seeded Battle Mountain started the second half on a 4-0 run, extinguishing any sliver of hope en route to sending the Miners packing with a 13-4 win.

“This program has been so much fun and I think we all deserved this. We worked so hard for this,” Alexandra Dienst said of the victory, the first playoff win in team history according to MaxPreps.

---

---

“Especially after this season, just leading up to it. We’ve just really worked together and gotten better,” added Molly Kessenich.

Kessenich and Dienst accounted for six of the Huskies eight second-half points.

---

---

Carter Youngblood instigated the offense early, scoring just 1:10 into the game. Marley Lindner, Youngblood and Sofia Rindone each lit up the scoreboard in the following two minutes as a high-scoring affair appeared to be in store.

The rest of the half, however, belonged to Telluride. Peppering sophomore goalie Roxy Surridge with good looks, Campbell Carter finally broke through with a grounder into the net at the 13:33 mark. The Miners continued to control possession through an eight-minute dry spell before Maeve Stetina found redemption, making it 4-2.

Dienst provided a swift response — literally — springing from midfield right to the crease for a goal, but Carter, who led the Miners with three goals, brought things back to within two before the buzzer.

The theme of the halftime pep talk was to loosen up, according to Kessenich and Dienst.

“We were like, ‘guys let’s settle and have some fun,’” recalled Dienst.

“I think our big thing was that we just weren’t enjoying it as much as we normally do.”

Kessenich, who entered the game averaging four goals per game, went to work right away. The sophomore swooped around the net with a wrap around score and added a second 90 seconds later to give her squad some breathing room.

“Outside of the stats, what you don’t see — on one of my goals, Abby set a really amazing pick, and we’ve been working on that in practice. And then I rolled and it worked,” said Kessenich of the narrative undergirding her offensive success.

“Just the working together and stuff was big tonight.”

Dienst’s offensive punch — she scored the team’s next three goals — sealed the deal. It was the team’s clean play on the other end of the field, however, that stuck out to the junior.

“I think the big thing with that game was the defense — props to the defense,” she said.

“They played strong ‘d’ they slid well, they did everything they were supposed to do.”

Battle Mountain will face No. 8 Northfield on Thursday in Denver in the second round.

Eagle Valley loses to Holy Family in first round

Eagle Valley couldn’t recover from a key 5-0 Holy Family first-half run, ultimately falling to the Tigers 20-11 in the first round of the 4A state girls lacrosse tournament in Broomfield Tuesday night. The Devils trailed 2-3 early in the game before the Tigers went on their run.

It was 10-6 at half, but Eagle Valley (7-7) was able to close the gap to four with 14 minutes remaining. The Tigers closed the game on another 7-2 run to end the Devils’ season.