Mustangs fall 18-6 to Bruins
Match caps streaky season.
AURORA – It was not the ending they wanted.
While Mullen’s 18-6 loss to Cherry Creek at Legacy Stadium in the second round of the girls lacrosse playoffs wasn’t unexpected, the way it went down made it a little tougher to take.
In ending their season at 11-6 and having their eight-match winning streak snapped, the Mustangs entered having been a 13-3 loser to the Bruins to open the Centennial League season in early April.
And after they regrouped and had time to prepare for the rematch in getting past Steamboat Springs in the opening round, they were confident they could make a run at one of the sport’s powers since sanctioning a couple of decades ago and this bracket’s No. 2 seed.
But it didn’t happen.
“We were prepared for everything (the Bruins) did,” Mullen head coach Melynda Brown said. “Unfortunately, we did not execute it.”
Overall, she added, “we let emotions get to us. Only a handful of these girls have been in the playoffs. In the second round and with a good opponent and we had already been 10-goaled by them, we just the the emotions of it get to us.”
In one of three matchups in the second round involving league foes – just 20 made the bracket – Mullen certainly knew what it was getting into against the Bruins (15-1), who are headed to the semifinals. And even though Cherry Creek scored within a half-minute, Mustangs leading scorer Emerson Johnson tied it a half-minute later.
But that was about it for the Mustangs. Cherry Creek scored the next eight goals to take a commanding lead and made it 11-3 by halftime. The Bruins implemented the mercy rule (10-goal margin for a running clock) early in the second half and were never seriously challenged. Senior goalie Izzy Cisneros was under a lot of pressure and frequently had little chance.
Molly Gilbert had two goals and Johnson, Charlie Beck, Elise Bialecki and Haley Vanek each had one.
Clearly, Brown said, the Mustangs have improved from 2018, her first season, to 2019: “Oh, yeah, leaps and bounds since last year. And the seniors really were great leaders this year and will be missed next year.”
The Mustangs will lose six seniors, as in Johnson, Cisneros and four starting defenders, although the lower classes remain promising and should grow.
“One of our angles was we swung a lot more people this year,” Brown said. “It gets easier, but we need to pick up our skills.”
CHERRY CREEK 18, MULLEN 6
Mullen 2 4 -- 6
Cherry Creek 11 7 -- 18
Mullen goals – Molly Gilbert 2, Charlie Beck, Elise Bialecki, Emerson Johnson, Haley Vanek.
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