After a score-filled first half, the Summit High School Tigers boys soccer team wasn’t able to keep up with the D’Evelyn High School offense in a 5-2 loss Tuesday night, Oct. 5, at North Area Athletic Complex in Arvada.

The Tigers (4-5-1) controlled much of the early action and traded a pair of early goals each with the Jaguars, a 4A side from Denver who entered the game with a 4-5 overall record. The back-and-forth flow of the game included a pair of goals from the Tigers — one on a penalty and one during the run of play.

It was Tigers attacking midfielder Alan Casillas who maintained his recent strong play and earned a penalty. Head coach Jotwan Daniels said he stepped up and buried the opportunity “like the leader that he is.” Junior attacking midfielder Owen Gallo’s goal came on a classic individual effort.

“Another captain’s goal, where he took the responsibility upon himself, saw the goal and let it rip,” Daniels said. “With that left foot, too — which I got to give him credit for. That’s his weak foot.”

With the two Tigers goals, Summit was knotted up with D’Evelyn 2-2 toward the end of the first half before the Jaguars hammered home a rebound opportunity after Tigers junior goalkeeper Tommy Romero made an initial save.

“For a 10-minute portion of that game we looked dominant, we looked solid, early in the first half,” Daniels said. “And then there were a couple of silly plays, a couple of mistakes and we lose our head and we lose our organization.”

As well as D’Evelyn concluded the first half, they began the second half stronger. Daniels said the Jaguars refined their organization in the second half, which led to more control of possession, more opportunities to shoot on net and two more goals.

The coach said the Jaguars especially did well to make pivotal plays from the top of the Tigers 18-yard box.

“They had maybe eight to 10 shots on goal and had five goals — that’s a good side,” Daniels said. “I think, in the second half, we struggled to get a grip into the game.”

The game’s dagger came with 25 minutes and 10 seconds remaining in the game. Jaguars leading scorer, senior Jack Weber, scored a third goal on the night for a hat trick. The goal manifested on a secondary opportunity during transition offense, Weber’s right foot sent a strike out of the range of junior goalkeeper Trevor Hodges to make it 4-2.

On the score, Tigers players motioned the referees over because they thought Weber’s strike was not a goal, rather a ball that got caught up in the netting from the outside. After the officials initially changed their call to a no goal, Daniels called the referees over to tell them from his vantage point he could verify it was a goal.

“There’s bigger things than wins and losses,” Daniels said. “What lesson am I teaching my boys if I’m like, ‘Yeah, that wasn’t a goal. Let’s take it off.’ That’s not the way I want to coach or get results, or the lesson for the boys to learn.”

D’Evelyn further put the game away a minute later, when senior Julian Castro showcased top-class touch on the final goal of the night for the eventual 5-2 scoreline.

In the loss, Daniels said Tigers senior defenders Sam Daly and Evan Jones gave the team tremendous energy, while senior forward Thierno Ly had another strong effort.

“And (junior forward) Alex Espinoza played pretty good from time to time and (junior defender) Evan Reil stepped up when he played a little bit of center back and outside left back.”

Summit will return to Tiger Stadium in Breckenridge at 6 p.m. Thursday night, Oct. 7, for a senior night matchup versus Vail Mountain School (5-2-2). Both Summit, at 0-4-1, and the Gore Rangers, at 0-0-2, are winless thus far this season in 4A/3A Western Slope League play.