The Northfield boys soccer team’s bid for a Class 4A three-peat fell one match short.
Leo Martinez and Cooper Skidmore scored goals in the first and second half, respectively, as Battle Mountain avenged a title-game loss to Northfield last fall with a 2-0 victory for its first state championship in 11 years.
Top-seeded Northfield (19-1) had lost just once — 4-0 at eventual 5A champion Denver East in 2022 — over the past three seasons entering Saturday’s championship match at Weidner Field in Colorado Springs. But the third-seeded Mustangs (18-1-1) shut them out for just the second time since 2021.
Congratulations to Battle Mountain for winning CHSAA’s 2023 4A Boys Soccer State Championship! It’s Battle Mountain’s second title in boys soccer, and their first since 2012!
Congratulations, also, to Northfield for finishing as 4A’s runner-up pic.twitter.com/ocK66oJdrb
— CHSAA (@CHSAA) November 12, 2023
3A final — Colorado Academy 3, Coal Ridge 1: Senior Simeon Woldeyohannes scored the go-ahead goal in the 60th minute, Christoff Zimmerman added a score after that, and Colorado Academy (17-1-2) claimed its third state title in four years.
Junior Caleb Mengistu scored the Mustangs’ first goal in the sixth minute. Isaac Thompson knotted the game at 1-all for Coal Ridge (12-5-3) early in the second half before Colorado Academy answered to win its seventh state crown.
2A final — Crested Butte 1, Bishop Machebeuf 0: Sawyer Barney buried a breakaway goal off a feed from Marin Gardner with 25:30 to go as the Titans (14-2-3) claimed their fourth state title. Fourth-seeded Machebeuf (16-3-0) reached the 2A final a year after getting eliminated in the semifinals.
Class 4A football
No. 3 Montrose beat No. 14 Pueblo West, 35-28: Gage Wareham scored one TD and found Austin Zimmer for another as part of a 28-0 first half to lift the Red Hawks (9-2) to their sixth straight quarterfinal trip. Blake Griffin’s rushing score put Montrose ahead 35-7 late in the third quarter before the Cyclones (7-5) mounted a desperation rally that fell short.
No. 4 Broomfield beat No. 13 Fruita Monument, 30-14: The defending 4A champion Eagles (9-2) beat Fruita Monument (8-4) for the second time this season to advance to the quarterfinals and a matchup with No. 5 Mesa Ridge. The Wildcats pulled within two at 16-14 in the third quarter, but that was as close as they would get.
No. 8 Heritage beat No. 9 Golden, 31-18: Heritage (7-4) punched its ticket to the quarterfinals for the second year in a row, answering a Demons TD in the first quarter with 17 unanswered points to close out the first half. A Luc Chevalier scoring run brought Golden (9-3) within a score in the third quarter, but Heritage answered with two straight TDs to put the game away.
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