Roaring Fork soccer season ends with semifinal loss to Holy Family

The Western Slope League champion Roaring Fork High School boys soccer team fought hard in the Class 3A state semifinals on Wednesday, but Holy Family and the No. 1-seeded Tigers didn’t let their prey linger too long. 

The No. 5 seed Rams lost 3-0 to Holy Family on a brisk and foggy evening in Arvada. The familiarity of a wet, natural grass field didn’t help the Western Slope representative, who will trek home as a top-four team in the state. 

Roaring Fork was seeking its first state championship berth since 2021 and third under the leadership of head coach Nick Forbes, who has led the Rams to the finale in two of four trips to the Final Four. With one championship ring already around his finger and a young team that surpassed expectations around him, expect to find Forbes and the Rams in a similar situation next year. 

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The Rams and their boisterously supportive fans made the three-hour journey to Arvada, but weren’t rewarded with equal satisfaction as they were in 2021. 

“The fans really stepped up for us,” Forbes said after the loss. “There is always excellent parent support with things like team dinners. It’s a great community to be a part of, and it feels like a team effort from everyone.”

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The Tigers jumped at the Rams from the get-go. However strong the Rams were against teams from the Western Slope, it was no matter against the top-seeded team in 3A. From the opening kick, it seemed Holy Family had the final say over the game’s outcome. 

The Tigers worked the ball deep in the seventh minute with impressive footwork and lovely long passes. The ball trickled out of bounds for the game’s first corner kick, which Holy Family cashed in on by finding the back of the net off a rebound.

The first goal came seven minutes into the game, doing more negative harm to the Rams than positively impacting the Tigers. The Rams seemed shocked after falling into a hole so early in the game and couldn’t figure out the correct way to dig upward. Whenever it seemed as if Roaring Fork was grasping a hold of the ledge, a finger would slip, and another goal would be scored.

“They are a really strong and organized team,” Forbes said. “Going down early always makes it a really tough hill to climb to get back in the game. We started to get a foothold, but their second goal reversed the momentum we were trying to build to get back into it.”

Holy Family took a 2-0 lead into the half, and the final nail in the coffin came early in the second half. As a Holy Family attacker raced toward the net, the Rams’ last defender had no choice but to practice his three-point takedown. The whistle promptly blew, and the Tigers changed from 2-0 to 3-0, which the scoreboard boasted until triple zeros read across its face. 

Although the Rams ultimately fall short in 2024, there is no reason not to look forward to what they can accomplish in 2025. In a year when Forbes entered with the mentality of a “building year,” Roaring Fork won the 3A WSL, defeated the 14-3-1 Rifle Bears in the playoffs, and cracked the Final Four for the first time in three years. 

“It’s a testament to the senior leaders on this team,” Forbes said about the young players. “They flipped the ‘building year’ paradigm on its head. The seniors on this team led by example and were some of the most coachable and positive seniors I’ve had in my career. It didn’t take much time to realize the team was already built. I’m just bummed for them because I think we had it in us to win that game and take it one step farther, as well as gutted they don’t get what their attitude and application all season deserved.”