Northglenn soccer showcased their offensive firepower when it was needed Sept. 3. Holding off Arvada 6-5 at the North Area Athletic Conference field, the Norsemen earned their second victory in their second try of 2019.

It all started with complete ball domination on the Arvada side of the field, taking six shots to the Bulldogs’ zero the first 11 minutes. Finally breaking through after multiple close scoring opportunities, junior Luis Ramirez gave the Norse the 1-0 lead with 27:05 left in the first half. And he wasn’t done.

After Arvada’s tying score less than five minutes later from sophomore David Ngewasi, Ramirez tallied his second and third goals with 8:19 and 19 seconds left in the first. Earning the hat-trick the veteran gave his team a 3-2 lead going to intermission.

“He is a deadly weapon,” Northglenn soccer coach Paul Skattum said of Ramirez after the game. “He is a great ball-handler with four goals this year. He is also a great distributor with two assists on the season. He really gives us a lot of options.”

With 12 more shots than Arvada going to halftime, a 3-2 lead didn’t display the separation between the two teams in the first 40 minutes. However, in the second half, Arvada stepped their play up, and Northglenn had to counter with three more goals to steal a road win.

In the first four minutes of the new half, Northglenn continued their quick pace of play and tallied a well-earned goal off the right foot of junior Robert Brown-Lee less than two minutes in. Ten minutes later, Brown-Lee recorded another into the back of the net from in between the Arvada net and midfield.

At 5-2, things looked well in hand for the Norsemen until a goal from Ngewasi again 14 seconds later put the margin once again at two. He also wasn’t done.

With a hat-trick of his own, Ngewasi put another in the net less than three minutes later before a game-tying score from sophomore Geovanny Reveles had the Norse in a shock with 11:50 remaining.

The road team, despite losing a three-goal lead, didn’t panic. Knocking-in the game-winner with seven minutes left, senior Elias Hashem converted to keep Northglenn unbeaten.

“Luis Ramirez really just stepped up early, and we really got things going from there. It’s a lot of fun to have a game like this where they just keep building and going back and forth. It was really exciting for the coaches on the sideline, fans, the players. You could see everyone thriving in a game like this,” Skattum said.

With the win, will come lessons for Skattum and his young team that has only four seniors. Six goals allowed in their first two affairs is something that will need to improve for a successful season to be obtained in Northglenn.

“I think the biggest thing for us is to really stabilize our defense. They played well against Kennedy last week, and tonight they were just out of sync. We had a couple of sick midfielders tonight, so we were doing a lot of substitutions we normally don’t do. So, hopefully, we will get them back on track.”