In the span of less than a minute following halftime, Cheyenne Mountain grabbed its first lead and never let Air Academy back into their 4A Southern League boys’ lacrosse showdown.

The Indians scored twice in the first 54 seconds – 44 seconds apart – and Pikes Peak region No. 2 Cheyenne Mountain defeated No. 3 Air Academy 10-6 at Air Academy on Friday evening to claim the league title.

“We have practiced so hard in the last three weeks,” Indians coach Mike Paige said. “Really gritty practices and it paid off today.”

The Indians (11-3, 6-0 league) didn’t stop with those two goals. They poured in three more in the third period, turning a 2-2 halftime stalemate into a commanding 7-3 lead heading to the fourth.The five goals came in a span of 4:53.

“It all starts with August Johnson,” said Indians attackman Jack Egan, who scored all three of his game-high goals in the third. “He had that good shot that went five hole on the goalie. After that it was just kind of a rally. Everybody fed off that and we were able to get some goals up on the board.”

Johnson and Cullen Nordeman each had two goals and two assists.

The Indians registered just one shot in the first quarter. They fell behind 2-0 early in the second. But they erased that deficit before the half.

Air Academy (9-6, 4-1) possessed the ball well in the first period. But after that the offense struggled to put passes together and find cutters. They went the first 5:50 of the third without a shot in the second half as Cheyenne Mountain built its lead.

“We didn’t figure out how to break the zone,” Kadets coach John Mandico said. “Their zone is very good. We had spurts when the offense was clicking, and other times we just couldn’t penetrate the zone.”

When the Kadets did get shots in the second half, Indians goalie Luke Paige was there often. He finished with 12 saves, several of them from point-blank range.

“We just played hard,” Luke Paige said. “We practice a lot, we run sprints and it all paid off.”

The Kadets didn’t score again until JD Walton’s goal with 1:09 left in the third cut the lead to 7-3.

Walton led the team with two goals.

“It was hard because we couldn’t work the ball where we wanted to, unable to get the ball to the crease,” said Mark Garrett, who entered the game with 28 goals but went scoreless Friday. “… It was frustrating. I’m used to putting up a lot of points. It’s always a bummer not being able to do that.”