Niwot Boys soccer picks up second win over top 10 opponent

Knocking off sixth-ranked Silver Creek, 2-1 in double overtime last week didn't seem to impress CHSAA Now voters as Silver Creek maintained its 6th-place ranking as of Sept. 19, while Niwot picked up only one point in the voting, going from nine to ten points, well out of the Top 10 rankings.

This week, the Cougars took on 5th-ranked Northridge on Thursday, Sept. 22, and came away with a solid 3-0 win on the new home turf. The Cougars are now 4-3 on the season, with the last loss coming to Centaurus, 4-3, and now 2nd-ranked George Washington, 1-0.

Against Northridge, Niwot took control early, scoring twice in the first period. "Miles Verbeck got the start at forward and put a good one away on a Josh Ary cross at about the 16-minute mark," Coach Stephen Dimit said. "Northridge is a really fast team."

Eric Walker scored Niwot's second goal in the last two minutes of the first period. "Jett [Feiner] pushed it through," Dimit said. "Josh had two great assists."

The Cougars iced the game with a third goal, this time by Javier Alvira near the end of the contest, with Feiner picking up an assist.

Dimit was also pleased with his defenders. "Montana [Heather] played all 80 minutes for the first time this year," Dimit said. He and Jay Scharfe and Cristian Perez shut down one of the best players in our league. We spent almost all of the second half defending."

"We had to shift our mindset to protecting the lead [at halftime]," Dimit said after finding themselves up 2-0. "We had trained for this, but in reverse. We actually trained for them scoring early, but that didn't happen."

Dimit and his players are getting to know and like the home turf. "This was our fourth game on the new turf, and it's starting to feel like home," he said. "Our guys are starting to use the field to their advantage."