Niwot edges Skyline 1-0

The Niwot girls soccer team restored some balance to the universe with a narrow 1-0 win over cross-town rival Skyline at home on March 20. Junior Sierra Kepler and Kiera Flanagan combined for the game’s lone score, a rebound goal with less than 10 minutes remaining in the first half. However, for most of the game, the players battled the elements almost as much as they battled each other, as the windy conditions sometimes made the ball’s path unpredictable.

Head coach Stephen Dimit said afterwards that redressing last year’s first-ever loss to the Falcons was more than a bit of a motivator for his 2018 team.

“We knew that they are a really scrappy team, and they’d come out and play super hard,” he said. “We knew that this year we had to really come out here and match that. They took us off our game a little bit, for sure, but in the end, we have some really talented players and they stepped up.”

Niwot dominated possession throughout most of the game, and particularly in the second half, thanks to the efforts of some familiar faces such as seniors Sage Marten and Mary Stischer. Newcomers Maddie Borncamp and Flanagan were again impressive on the day, the latter ending the day with a number of scoring chances, and finally coming away with an assist, her first of the year.

Though she was hoping to put one in the net, the freshman forward was happy with her ability to get behind Skyline’s defenders.

“They played a different formation, so they just have three in the back,” she said. “It’s easier to take them on on the wide side and then cross it.”

During the second half, the Cougars were able to send the ball towards the net a number of times, but couldn’t convert on their chances, which both Dimit and Flanagan found frustrating at times. Nevertheless, they were able to maintain their slim lead for nearly 50 minutes, which Dimit hopes will pay off against tough opponents down the stretch.

“Any time we can dominate possession in their half with a lead, we’ll take that,” he said.”I thought it was good in the early season to play a tight game like this, where we had to protect the lead for a lot longer than we did last week, so that was a good experience.”

It was business as usual for the Niwot defense down at the other end of the field. Skyline’s best scoring chance came on a breakaway in the final minutes of the first half, but senior keeper Allie Colvin smothered it. Otherwise, Roxie Pasma, Kenzie Pasma, Nazary Ramirez and Lauren Cranny kept the Falcons’ offense out of the Niwot half of the field, helping Colvin secure her second shutout of the season.

Niwot suffered its first loss of the season 8-0 to top-ranked Windsor two nights later, to move to 3-1 on the season heading into spring break.The Cougars are back in action on April 3 against Erie and then head to Thompson Valley on April 5.

3/20 — Niwot 1, Skyline 0

Falcons (1-2) 0 0 — 0

Cougars (3-0) 0 2 — 2

Goals — Sierra Keppler

Assists— Kiera Flanagan

Goalies (Min-Goals allowed-Saves) — Allie Colvin (80-0-3)

3/22 --- Windsor 8, Niwot 0

Cougars (3-1) 0 0 --- 0

Wizards (2-0-1) 4 4 --- 8