It took a little longer than desired for Chatfield girls soccer to hit the back of the net on last week at Lakewood Memorial Field.

While the Chargers (5-4 record, 2-0 in Class 5A Jeffco League) peppered Bear Creek senior goalie Andie Wessell for the majority of the first half on April 11, Chatfield didn’t score until sophomore Kyra Kuennen deflected in a corner kick just before halftime.

“It was definitely disappointing and honestly kind of hard to watch,” Chatfield junior Ava Erickson said of the majority of the first half. “We just weren’t scoring.”

Chatfield did extend its halftime lead in impressive fashion scoring six goals over a span of 17 minutes in the second half. That capped off a 7-0 victory in the conference opener for both squads. 

“I think our halftime talk did quite a bit,” Erickson said of the change in the second half. “We were talking about placing and finishing. We’ve struggled with that all season. To do that was definitely nice.”

Erickson both started and finished the scoring barrage. In the 50th minute, the junior perfectly executed a flick into the net off a shot from junior Jayden Heil. Erickson beat Wessell in the 67th minute to make the game a 7-0 lead for the Chargers.

Junior Hannah Anderson had a pair of goals a minute apart in the second half. Senior Emmy Kercher and freshman Tyler Sternberg each added a goal in the win.

“The key is playing hard and getting that result in the first league game,” Chatfield Coach Brock Blume said. “We’ll be back here on Friday against A-West. That will be a great battle.”

Chatfield has a busy 72 hours coming up. The Chargers were back on the pitch with a road game against No. 6 Heritage on Wednesday. Chatfield suffered a 1-0 loss, but then were back at Lakewood Memorial Field on Friday night against Arvada West (6-2, 1-1) in another 5A Jeffco League match. 

The Chargers took a 4-2 victory to stay atop of the conference standings with Valor (5-1-1, 2-0) and Ralston Valley (7-3, 2-0).

“It’s important to start out strong,” said Erickson, who missed a few games the previous week with an illness. “Now it’s a competition to win that league title. It is really important to win every game.”

Dennis Pleuss is the Sports Information Director for Jeffco Public Schools. For more Jeffco coverage, go to CHSAANow.com.