COLORADO SPRINGS — No. 8 Hotchkiss stunned top-seeded Colorado Springs Christian School 3-0 in the quarterfinals of the 3A boys soccer playoffs Thursday at Mountain Lion Stadium thanks to a stingy defense and opportune offense.

The Bulldogs struck first at 17:18 when Carlos Gonzalez caught CSCS goalkeeper Russell Pompea too far out of the net and lobbed a long shot into the goal to give Hotchkiss a 1-0 lead.

“We knew we had to come in here and play hard and play a great team game to win,” said Hotchkiss coach Elaine Wood. “I’m so proud of these kids because they beat an amazing team in CSCS tonight.”

Hotchkiss, a program in only its sixth year of existence, scored the back-breaking goal at 58:20 when Kasey Sidor kicked a perfect cross on a corner and Manuel Ramirez headed it in to make it 2-0 Bulldogs with just over 20 minutes left.

“We weren’t relaxed enough and instead of just trying to put the ball in the net we were trying to hammer it in every time,” CSCS coach Tim Egeler said. “We made some errors on defense and just couldn’t convert on offense.”

The Bulldogs (14-0-4) used very effective defensive pressure all over the field and stifled the Lions (17-1) every time it looked like they had something going on offense.

“We have to give credit to the league we play in because there are some great teams like Aspen and Basalt that prepare us for games like tonight,” said Wood. “We just focused on attacking the ball on defense and we just played a complete team game.”

Both teams had multiple fouls called on them throughout a physical game.

Both teams tried to impose their wills. It made for a hard-fought and exciting soccer game.

“It doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we feel like if we play our game we are unbeatable,” Hotchkiss goalkeeper Evan Hansen said. “From Day 1 this season we knew we were a good team.”

The Lions had some great scoring chances but were denied by Hansen late to secure his third shutout in a row.

“We knew this would be a war against a great team and it was,” Egeler said. “It’s a very disappointing end to a magical season.”