It may have taken a little while, but the Summit High School boys soccer team has been rolling with momentum in the latter half of its regular season schedule.

After opening the season with five-consecutive losses, Summit has steadily gained confidence in its abilities to play as a team under first-year head coach Julio Mora. 

The influx in energy and confidence ultimately resulted in Summit securing its first win of the season against Basalt on Sept. 9 before beating Vail Mountain on Sept. 23. 

It was a huge 4A Western Slope league win over Glenwood Springs on Oct. 2 that seemed to change the trajectory of the historically hungry and hardworking program though. Since the Tigers defeated the Glenwood Springs Demons on the road, 3-2, Summit is 2-1-1 in its last four games. 

The Tigers recorded a 5-0 shutout win over Grand Valley on Oct. 9 before defeating Loveland, 2-1, on the Front Range on Oct. 11. Summit most recently tied (1-1) against Glenwood Springs in Breckenridge on Saturday, Oct. 18. Summit’s only loss in the last four games came against Eagle Valley in Gypsum on Oct. 6.

On Tuesday, Oct. 21, Summit got the opportunity to get revenge against the Eagle Valley Devils. Serving as the team’s homecoming and senior night game, Summit charged onto the field ready to secure a final regular-season win.

The Tigers started out fast, quickly sprinting down the field and putting the ball in their offensive zone. The Eagle Valley defense properly responded to the early pressure from Summit, clearing the zone and sending the ball back down the pitch. 

The strong defense soon led to a dash down the field for the Eagle Valley offense. With the Summit defense out of position, Eagle Valley sent a fiery shot towards senior goalie Johan Gomez.

Gomez tried to move into position to stop the ball, but the shot escaped his reach, giving Eagle Valley a 1-0 lead nearly six minutes into regulation. 

Although the Eagle Valley goal was disheartening, Summit wasted little time hanging its head. Instead, senior Seth Montgomery and senior Paulo Nieto sprinted down the field to set up scoring chances.

Both athletes had opportunities to even the score, but were turned away on the doorstep of the goal. 

For the second time, the staunch Eagle Valley defense led to a goal on the other side of the field. This time, an Eagle Valley athlete juked his way through the Summit defense to put the ball past Gomez.

It was not long before Eagle Valley netted its third goal. Feeling the consistent pressure from Eagle Valley, Summit produced a turnover in front of its own net. 

The ill-timed turnover set up a one-on-one matchup between Gomez and an Eagle Valley forward. Gomez shuffled to wrap up the shot, but just missed. Eagle Valley led 3-0 with over 25 minutes remaining in the first half.

Needing to score a goal to keep its hopes of a win alive, Montgomery regrouped his team and worked to pursue the net. Senior Nelson Vazquez Rojas came within inches of scoring off of a corner kick, but his header flew high of the net.

Summit’s next scoring opportunity came when the team had an indirect free kick. With the ball positioned just a few yards away from the goal, Summit fired a shot, but the scoring chance went up and over the net. 

Summit went into halftime trailing, 3-0.

Following a 10-minute intermission, Summit returned to the pitch and attempted to infiltrate the tough Eagle Valley defense. Montgomery continued to be a punishing force, chasing after loose balls and driving offensive production.

Despite the team’s continual perseverance, the Tigers were not able to cut into the Devils’ lead.  

After fighting off a fury of chances from Summit, Eagle Valley cleared the ball and began chasing a fourth goal. With several Summit defenders draped all over an Eagle Valley forward, the Devils scored their fourth goal of the game.

Despite knowing that a comeback was unlikely, Summit did not stop playing hard until the final whistle. With under 10 minutes left in the team’s season, Summit banded together to bring the ball into its offensive zone and put shots on net.

Montgomery got super close to scoring, fighting through defenders en route to firing a shot towards the net. The shot threatened the Eagle Valley goalie, but did not find the twine at the back of the goal. 

Eagle Valley shut out Summit, 4-0.

The team immediately felt the bitter taste of defeat after the game, falling to the turf and shedding a collective tear.

Summit ends the 2025 fall season with a record of 5-9-1 overall and 1-4-1 in league play. Even though the season didn’t end the way the team envisioned at the start of the season, Summit is still proud of how it showed up to each and every game.

“We have that connection,” Montgomery said. “We all just want to work hard and even though we are down 4-0 with a minute left, people are still working. It shows what we have and had. We don’t quit. We could have given up real easily today and we didn’t. For the people that didn’t give up, I am really proud of them.”

The Tigers will graduate 12 seniors from the roster, including Montgomery, Vazquez Rojas, Gomez, Nieto, Beck Harrel-Laszlo, Aiden Chambers, Keegan Breithaupt,Elijah Rowe, Oumar Ba, Luis Venegas, Lyrik Montgomery and Yurem Riestra.

“We are all pretty sad because we are all really close and a lot of us have known each other for four years,” Montgomery said. “This is not the way we wanted it to end. We know we could have done a lot better. It is sad that it is our last time playing and at least for me, probably the last time playing ever. So a lot of emotions, but it is a great group of guys.”