In an improbable narrative forged by tragedy and determination, a hockey team of middle schoolers from California won the Western Girls Hockey League championship Sunday in Littleton. In overtime.  This weekend, the Santa Clarita Lady Flyers became the adopted darlings of Colorado’s Front R ange. Their team van had crashed on an icy stretch of Interstate 70 Thursday morning, just half an hour away from their destination. The father of one player died in the accident and most of the passengers were sent to the hospital.  Slumped on a bench after the big win with a 1,000-yard stare was David Ahn, whose daughter Alicia scored almost half of the team’s goals over an emotionally-charged weekend. David Ahn, holds his emotional daughter Alicia after her team won the championship the Western Girls Hockey League Championship Sunday in Littleton in overtime on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026.. Just last Thursday, the team was involved in a horrible wreck on I-70 in which the driver of their van, a father of one of the girls, was killed. Several of the girls were injured. “It’s exhausting,” he said. “This joy that hockey brings, but along with that, the realization that one of the players lost her dad.”  An emotional roller-coaster The diminished team had fought adversity with a combination of grit and abandon.  With two team members in the hospital, and one playing with the bruises she suffered in the accident, the Santa Clarita Lady Flyers 12U AA girls team played five games in three days in Littleton, winning all but one. Things were most bleak when they lost Game 3. “We weren’t playing hard enough,” remembered team captain Sophia Boyle. Sophia Boyle, captain of the Santa Clarita Flyers, is greeted by fans from different girls team after an overtime win of the Western Girls Hockey League championship in Littleton on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026.. Just last Thursday, the team was involved in a horrible wreck on I-70, in which the driver of their van, the father of one of the girls, was killed. Several of the girls were injured. A Game 4 loss would have knocked them out of the tournament. But when Brody Lorenzana limped in from the hospital with two black eyes, the fire was lit. It was Lorenzana’s dad who lost his life.  With that kind of spiritual fuel, the Lady Flyers dominated Game 4, 14-0. They won the fifth game on Sunday morning. With just hours to recover, running on fumes and Nerds Gummy Clusters and Chick-fil-A, the girls gathered themselves for the sixth and final matchup against a tough team from Colorado’s Western Slope. The final match was scoreless, forcing the two teams into an overtime nail-biter. Then Khaleesi Bewer scored the Flyers’ sole goal against Mountain Select, a team which they had beaten in a gutsy shootout earlier in the tourney.  Hockey moms Vania Bewer, Maria Ziegler, and Steffanie Stelnick (left to right) celebrate when their girls hockey team wins the championship of the Western Girls Hockey League Championship Sunday in Littleton in overtime on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. Just last Thursday, the team was involved in a horrible wreck on I-70 in which the driver of their van, the father of one of the girls, was killed. Several of the girls were injured. The 1-0 win was bittersweet. Just four days earlier, the accident on Interstate 70 caused a van loaded with players and parents on their way from California to Colorado to careen down an embankment, killing 38-year-old Manuel Alejandro Lorenzana-Villegas.  On Thursday night, with three players in the hospital, the remaining girls faced a stark choice: Do they give up or take the ice? “We decided we had to play. For Manny,” said Boyle, the team captain.  The accident The Ford Transit driven by Lorenzana-Villegas was in its last half-hour stretch of a cross-country trip from California to Littleton when head coach Todd Stelnick received a text at around 7:35 a.m. on Thursday from the vehicle. The girls had been entranced by the fresh mountain snow.  Then the texts went silent.  The first call about the crash came into the Colorado State Patrol at 7:53 a.m.  Eight passengers in the family vehicle, including four children and three adults, were taken to Denver Health by ambulance after the crash, which took place on Interstate 70 eastbound just east of Loveland Pass, the Colorado State Patrol said. There were a total of 10 people in the van. The initial investigation found that a Colorado Department of Transportation plow truck was driving on I-70 westbound when its driver lost control and drove through the median into the eastbound lanes, hitting the van head-on, according to authorities.  The plow also hit two other vehicles but there were no injuries from those impacts. Photos provided by authorities show the CDOT truck lost its plow during the crash.  The interstate was closed in the eastbound direction at Silverthorne for much of Thursday, as crews responded to the crash. The Colorado State Patrol would only say that the crash is under investigation.  The Santa Clarita Lady Flyers, a hockey team of middle-schoolers from California, celebrate winning the Western Girls Hockey League Championship Sunday in Littleton in overtime on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. Just last Thursday, the team was involved in a horrible wreck on I-70, in which the driver of their van, the father of one of the girls, was killed. Resilience — for one more match At Littleton’s Edge Ice Arena, fans traded sports cards brandishing the Santa Clarita Flyers’ action photos with one another and taped homemade signs to the rink’s glass.  Besides the audience in the ice arena, thousands also followed the Lady Flyers’ matches on a YouTube livestream this weekend.  A fundraiser created to “help bring the families home” raised more than twice its $30,000 goal by Sunday morning. “Hoping for you that the greatest game on earth can unify you even tighter, and help heal the deep wounds of grief,” wrote one of the 900 donors. Teams in the 12U AA girls league also came together to support the Flyers, who, according to Stelnick, were numb.  The number of girls who play hockey in North America has hit record numbers, according to USA Hockey. The female age groups start at 6 and up. The total girls and adult female player registration had increased by nearly a third since 2022. In 2025, the female registration reached more than 98,000.  The girls play with more finesse, said hockey dad Chris Brown, a lifetime player who brought his daughter into the sport.   “Girls think things through, whereas the boys just push through and react,” Brown said. Seconds before the championship face-off Sunday, the Lady Flyers raised their sticks in a silent nod to Lorenzana-Villegas and then tore into a 48-minute game.  Brody Lorenzana, who was in the van when her dad died, watched the game, a bandage on her eye. She’s received nothing but hugs, love and a bottomless supply of Sour Patch Kids and Nerds from her teammates. In the locker room, sweaty from the 1-0 win, the pony-tailed Santa Rita Lady Flyers sang Katy Perry’s “California Gurls” through bright pink mouth guards. “California girls, we’re undeniable.” “Fine, fresh, fierce, we got it on lock!” Before he asked the press to leave, Stelnick, the head coach, held the Western Girls Hockey League banner high, as he danced around the room, two lucky baseball caps on his head, one backward and the other forward.  “Awesome job, girls. One helluva ending to the story!”  Coach Todd Stelnick and members of the Santa Clarita Flyers, a hockey team of middle-schoolers from California, celebrate winning the Western Girls Hockey League Championship Sunday in Littleton in overtime on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. Just last Thursday, the team was involved in a horrible wreck on I-70 in which the driver of their van, the father of one of the girls, was killed. Local hockey teams put signs on the glass of The Edge Ice Arena in honor of the girls who competed in the tournament. The Santa Clarita Lady Flyers won the championship of the Western Girls Hockey League championship Sunday in Littleton in overtime on Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. Just last Thursday, the team was involved in a horrible wreck on I-70, in which the driver of their van, the father of one of the girls, was killed. Several of the girls were injured. ...read more read less