Stalter ends Monarch’s dubious streak with four goals in win over Si…

LOUISVILLE — Monarch’s Sophia Stalter snapped her girls soccer team’s scoreless and winless streak in style Friday night. A wintry mess played as an unusual backdrop.

A breakout player who had 16 goals a season ago, the junior scored a career-best four times as a snow storm picked up in intensity as the game went along, and the Coyotes put to rest a run of more than 260 minutes without a goal in a 4-3 overtime win over Silver Creek.

“I told the team at halftime, we lost 10-1 to Legacy last week. We lost 5-0 Ralston Valley, tied Boulder and lost to Fairview last night 6-0 — I was like, we need to want to win,” she said. “We need to play like we’re going to win.”

It wasn’t just words.

Stalter scored her first two in the opening half, a prelude before the flurries eventually came overhead at Monarch High School.

Her third came in the 46th minute, in the sleet, for her first hat trick since she had back-to-back three-goal games last April.

And the walk-off winner came as large flakes rained down in the 89th. On it, she boxed out a defender atop the box (as she did on her first goal), almost reminiscent of a basketball player in the post. Zoe Shimonek got it to her there before Stalter spun and fired into the opposite corner of the net.

Her teammates immediately swarmed her, some with big blankets around them. The celebration was brief as getting off their feet and finding warmth sounded more befitting in the conditions.

“This is game (number) six for me this week,” Stalter laughed. “I got a club tournament this weekend, three high school games and another club game this weekend.”

The win served as the end of an arduous slump for Monarch (5-5-1), which went winless across its previous four games (0-3-1) while being outscored 21-1.

It took some bruises to get there.

The first 10 seconds of the match saw two Monarch players get bludgeoned inadvertently in the face with the ball. Silver Creek’s Morgan Huff added to the sting with her first of two goals on the night in the 10th minute.

The teams would end up trading goals in the opening half. Stalter answered Huff’s 30-yard strike with goals in the 14th and 32nd. Denali Levin then scored her fifth goal of the season in the 40th to tie things at 2-2.

The second half was more of the same. Stalter and Huff scored again, then both nearly had the winner in regulation.

In the 67th, Stalter’s picturesque, left-footed hit from 31 yards out cradled the top corner of the net but was blown dead moments prior due to a foul on the Raptors.

“To be able to finish four times says a lot about somebody,” Monarch coach Katy Wood said. “And to get a goal taken away when she has an excellent strike, and to stay in there and finish that fourth goal, says a lot about her mental toughness.”

In the 78th, Huff’s chance from about 20 yards out drifted over the hands of the keeper and just high of the net. Exclusively a club player before this year, she finished with her first multi-goal game in high school.

“Yeah, she’s the best player on the field, working harder than anyone else,” Silver Creek coach Rob Johnson said. “And she’s trying to get other people to work as hard as she does.”

Silver Creek (4-4) will look to snap a three-game skid at home against Greeley West Monday.

Monarch is at Broomfield Tuesday.