It’s on to the second round of the 4A state playoffs for the Roaring Fork High School girls lacrosse team, after a convincing 15-6 win in the opener over Rampart Tuesday at Rams Field in Carbondale.

The Rams improved to 10-5 overall on the heels of a pair of hard-fought wins on the road to finish the regular season, 16-13 at Telluride on Friday and 12-9 Saturday at Durango.

Next up is a road trip to Denver on Thursday, where the 11th-seeded Rams will take on sixth-seeded Northfield. The winner advances to the quarterfinals of the 24-team tournament.

“We just need to focus and settle in and play our game, and do what we do,” head coach Drew Kitchell said after the first-round win. “Tonight, we were super crisp and were able to start subbing people in the first quarter, so that feels pretty good in a playoff game to give some of the kids a break.”

Roaring Fork built an early lead on Rampart, holding a 6-2 advantage at the end of the first quarter and leading 11-2 by halftime.

Junior Josie McKinley-Kitchell scored all four of her goals in the first half, with four goals also coming from junior Hailey Wolfe. Seniors Grace Garcia and Paige Pulliam, sophomores Jordyn Miller and Juliana Pitz and freshmen Marin Weaver and Aurora Cherney also scored. 

The Rams grinded it out to score two comeback wins on the overnight road trip to Telluride and Durango, falling behind in both matches before finding their offensive game, Kitchell said.

“We started the Durango game down 0-4 and managed to tie it at the end of the first quarter,” he said. “It was a lot of energy and emotion to beat two tough teams on the road, back to back, on super short rest.”

Continuing to not play in panic mode will be key for the Rams in Thursday’s second round, Kitchell said.

Girls soccer hosts 3A opener

Meanwhile, the Roaring Fork girls soccer team enters the 32-team 3A state playoffs as the 10th seed, taking on No. 23 Longmont at Rams Field Thursday evening, 5pm.

The Rams concluded the regular season on Thursday, May 2 with a 3-1 win at Aspen. Junior Emma Charters had two goals, and sophomore Maya Lindbloom had one.

Roaring Fork finished the regular season at 8-4-3 overall and 5-1-1, taking second to Delta in the 3A Western Slope League.

Baseball

Roaring Fork baseball also winds up the regular season this week, with an eye on a possible 3A regional berth. 

The Rams lost 12-0 Wednesday, May 1 at home to Rifle, then won 17-8 at Moffat County on Saturday. A Tuesday game that was to be played at Coal Ridge was postponed due to the weather.

At 9-11 overall and 4-2 in league play, the Rams held the 32nd spot in the 3A state rankings this week, with 32 teams earning a trip to regionals.

The Rams are scheduled to play Cedaredge at home Thursday, 3pm, and take on North Fork at 11am Saturday, also at home.

Track and Field

The Friday-Saturday 3A Western Slope League Track and Field Championships in Grand Junction saw several Roaring Fork athletes score team points and improve their season – and personal-best times and marks in their respective events.

Senior Kyra Reeds took first place and ran a personal record (PR) time of sub-17 seconds in the 100-meter hurdles on Saturday. She also took fourth in the 300 hurdles (50.3) and ran on the fifth-place 4×200 relay with junior Isabella Moon, senior Evi Keating and sophomore Nikki Tardif (1:56.85).

Other top performances among the Lady Rams came from Tardif, third in the 400 meters (1:03.78) and fifth in the 200 meters (28.55); Moon, fifth 1600 meters (5:50.99) and sixth 400 meters (1:08.16, with a PR 1:05.58 in prelims); sophomore Caroline Cole, eighth in the 1600 meters (PR 5:56.46) and a PR 2:37.78 in the 800 meters; freshman Sadie Silcox, PR 2:51.33 in the 800.

Among the Rams boys, the 4×100 relay team of seniors Angel Quinteros and Mateo Ledezma, junior Eli Norris and freshman Gianluca Liuzzi placed sixth with a time of 1:41.19.

And PRs came in the long jump for Norris (18 feet, 2 inches) and senior Angel Quinteros (18 feet, 0.5 inches), and for junior Magnus Knable in the 1600 meters (5:19.93) and 800 meters (2:18.29), and freshman Erik Palomera in the 3200 meters (12:31.99).