No. 1 Windsor girls soccer stuns Palmer Ridge with two late goals to surge into title game

GREELEY — In soccer parlance, it’s called an Olimpico.

It comes when a player takes a corner kick and bends it straight in for a goal with no one else touching it.

Olimpico’s are rare. But they're always “holy crap!” moments when they happen.

Windsor’s Olimpico on Thursday night wasn’t just a “wow” moment but also a “here we go!” on the charge to the state title game for the Wizards.

Top-seeded Windsor trailed Palmer Ridge in the semifinal game with less than 20 minutes to go, but an Olimpico, a penalty kick and a defiant attitude powered the Wizards to a late surge and 2-1 win.

“We can come back from anything. We are that team,” said Abiah Randel, scorer of the Olimpico. “We’re the team that no one wants to face, and if we go down we’re going to come back and get you together.”

Spring sports state championship tracker: Postseason brackets, scores, schedules

It was an insane evening of weather changes at the University of Northern Colorado. The first semifinal (eventually won by No. 7 Northfield 1-0 in overtime over No. 3 Durango) started with temperatures near 90 degrees.

By the time Windsor and No. 4 Palmer Ridge kicked off in the second semifinal, the wind was howling and temperatures had plummeted a stunning 40 degrees.

It completely changed the game, with each team having to play a half attacking into the gale. Attack is the wrong word, because there was no way to do so with that wind.

Palmer Ridge had the wind at its back in the first half, and the game plan for Windsor was simple: Hold on.

“The wind was a real factor,” Windsor coach Mike Lordemann said. “I thought if we could get out of the first half tied or down just a goal, we were in good shape.”

Never has a 1-0 halftime deficit felt so fine.

Palmer Ridge (15-3-1) did indeed dominate the first 40 minutes and took a lead through a fluky deflection on a free kick. But that was it.

Windsor entered the break confident that it would turn it around.

Sure enough, the Wizards dominated, but they couldn’t find the breakthrough.

Tick, tick, tick. All of a sudden more than 20 minutes of the second half were gone and Palmer Ridge was feeling like it could be title-game bound.

Windsor earned a corner kick down its attacking right side (Palmer Ridge’s defensive left). Right-footed Jolie Jiricek usually takes set pieces for the Wizards (she scored a free kick goal in Tuesday’s quarterfinal win), but Lordemann thought they could play the wind.

Up stepped Randel, the lefty. She floated the corner into the box, aiming for teammates Abby Bush and Carty Kingsbury, but the wind had other plans.

It grabbed it, pushed it toward the goal, sending Palmer Ridge’s goalkeeper scrambling as it crashed into the corner of the net over her head to tie the game with just shy of 17 minutes remaining.

“At first I couldn’t believe it,” Randel said. “I couldn’t tell if it went in or it went over, then everyone started running at me and I got really excited. I haven’t smiled like that in a really long time.”

Colorado state track & field meet: Live updates, results, highlights

That was the spark.

Windsor was already pressing and that goal kicked them into overdrive. Waves of pressure ensued, and 10 minutes after the goal Samantha Darnell used clever footwork to evade one defender before being tripped by another in the box for a penalty kick.

Up stepped Bush, one of Windsor’s captains. She had time to calm her nerves as Palmer Ridge protested the call.

They practice penalties every day, but this one was a bit different with the pressure involved. No worries. She smashed it in for a 2-1 lead.

Windsor calmly held off Palmer Ridge for the final 6 minutes and now are bound for Tuesday’s 8 p.m. title game at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park against Northfield.

“I think we’re all just super excited. We didn’t have any doubt,” Bush said. “We knew even though we were down 1-0 that we could come back.”

How influential was the wind? Neither team had a shot on goal in the half where they attacked into the wind.

It’s just another step in a redemption tour of sorts for this squad. COVID-19 wiped out the 2020 season, and a upset loss in the playoffs last season provide all the motivating fuel needed.

Now’s time to finish the job.

“There’s that ‘it’ factor to (championship teams) and this group has that ‘it’ factor for sure,” Lordemann said. “There’s just something special about this group.”

Follow Kevin Lytle at twitter.com/Kevin_Lytle and at facebook.com/KevinSLytle. Coloradoan sports can also be followed on Twitter. Support his work and that of other Coloradoan journalists by purchasing a digital subscription today.

This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: Colorado girls soccer: Windsor stuns Palmer Ridge late to reach 4A title