Early kicks

A couple of those happened this past week when Grandview — the defending 5A state champion — and Regis Jesuit met up Sept. 9 and battled into overtime.

BY COURTNEY OAKES Sports Editor

Coach Brian Wood’s Wolves, off to an up-anddown start to the season as they seek to replace a large numbers of players that graduated from last year’s championship-winner, netted the first two goals of the game on their home field.

Combine that with the fact that Grandview seemed to have the number of Regis Jesuit of late, including last season, when the Wolves knocked the Raiders out of the playoffs with a 2-1 win in double overtime. But coach Rick Wolf’s Regis Jesuit team refused to fold.

A red card to Grandview’s starting goalkeeper when he came out and tried to play the ball, but also made contact with a Regis Jesuit player, put the Wolves down a man. The Raiders got on the scoreboard on Chase Patterson’s free kick, then tied it

The Cougars, who are replacing some key members of last season’s 12-win team, came in off their first defeat of the season, a stinging one-goal loss to Valor Christian, the No. 2-ranked team in the state.

Coach Mark Hill’s Cherokee Trail team could have allowed the momentum to continue against them — especially when they went down a player due to a red card — but instead dug in and battled back.

An unfortunate own goal for coach Vic Strouse’s Raiders, which came as the result of a free kick chance, evened the scored and the Cougars continued to push and came up with what turned out to be the game-winning goal when Garrison Hanson put in a ball kept alive by a teammate in the goal box.

Hill believed the result can be a springboard to further propel his team during an already quality start to the season, while Strouse was grateful for his teams’ best test on a successful start, which also included a victory over an upstart Overland team led by Mohammed Haidara that has been a handful for opponents Gateway is 3-1 and Aurora Central 2-1, both playoff teams last season and frequently in the recent past as well, are off to good starts as well. The Trojans edged Smoky Hill in another intense local battle.