Manuel Ramirez could not believe his good fortune. Believe it.

Hotchkiss beat Colorado Academy 1-0 on Tuesday night to win the Class 3A boys state soccer championship at the North Area Athletic Complex.

With 15:06 left in the first half, Ramirez was awarded a free kick from more than 40 yards out to the left of the Colorado Academy goal. He launched a high-arching shot that bounced in front of Mustangs goalkeeper Bobby Thalman. And after a short flurry of bodies in front of the goal, the ball went in.

One can call it lucky for Ramirez and Hotchkiss, or perhaps a poor call in front of the goal. No matter, the Bulldogs finished the season 16-0-4 to win the school's first soccer title. Colorado Academy finished 17-4.

"I just shot it like a center shot and was hoping for the best that someone would get a head on it," said Ramirez, who is a co-op player from Delta High School and was the Rocky MVP of the game. "I thought it was going to be a foul as someone might have pushed (Thalman). I was looking at the ball and saw the goalie go sideways.

"I thought, Oh, (no). But we got it anyway. We've always been a lower-class team, but this feels good going into the championship undefeated and winning it, too."

Hotchkiss coach Elaine Wood breathed a large sigh of relief as she watched the clock count down, and for good reason.

Colorado Academy was the aggressor much of the game and missed a bundle of opportunities. And even Wood called the goal lucky.

"That's what it took against this high-class, high-quality team and the great goalie they have," Wood said. "It was a hard-fought game. Offensively, they put the pressure on us and we were on our heels a lot. The thing that showed through is that our kids have tremendous heart and that's what got them through the season this year."

Indeed, Colorado Academy pushed the ball hard up the field only to see 16 shots go without results. And no one felt worse about the Hotchkiss goal than Thalman.

"I felt I came out strong on the play, and I felt my legs come out from under me," Thalman said. "I thought it was 50-50, but the ref saw it a different way. But we didn't score, and if you don't score, you don't win the game."

And holding Colorado Academy scoreless was Hotchkiss goalie Evan Hansen, who finished with eight saves.

"I have to give credit to my defense," Hansen said. "Ultimately, this was not one of my better nights. There was a couple of times I came out and the ball got behind me. Specifically, Jacob Fuller bailed me out, my center defenseman. It was just incredible. The defense set me up to where I could make the saves and we came out with the win."

It was a frustrating game for Alex Gunberg, Colorado Academy's leading scorer.

"We lost the game off a block and a lucky goal," said Gunberg, who scored 20 goals this season. "They pushed our goalkeeper over and the ball rolled in. In the second half, we came out strong, but our shots hit the posts, hit the crossbar. We had the chances but just couldn't put the ball away in the back of the net today.

"They caught us off-guard and got us out of our rhythm and, bang, like that, they win. For me, this whole game was a game of mistakes."

And that's also the way Colorado Academy coach J.C. Pritchard felt.

"They were very tenacious and aggressive on the ball," Pritchard said. "It was a hard-fought battle. I do think there should have been a foul on the play as our goalie was just going to scoop it up.

"But we can't use that as an excuse. We didn't score goals, and you can't win championships if you don't score goals. We hit the crossbar, we hit the goalie, we hit other players. We obviously had a lot of shots, but if you don't put it away, you can't win championships."