Denver Summit co-captain Janine Sonis may have dropped to her knees after converting a game-winning free kick in the dying minutes of the Continental Divide derby with the Utah Royals on Saturday, but her name has only been lifted up since she signed with the NWSL expansion team.Sonis and the Summit have been a match made in the Rocky Mountains.While the team’s marquee signing was U.S. women’s national team midfielder Lindsey Heaps, who has served as club co-captain alongside Sonis since joining the team midseason from OL Lyonnes in France, it is Sonis who is undeniably the heart and soul of the club. She’s been with the team since their first game and has shown nothing but consistent, clear-eyed leadership through a slew of highs and lows as the Summit settles into the league.“To have that kind of performance after a three-game week. We’ve been punched in the nose a couple of times in the last few games. We’ve played really good football and it just really hasn’t fallen for us,” she told broadcast duo JP Dellacamera and Jill Loyden following the 2-1 home thriller. The victory snapped a three-game winless streak.“You know how this game is. At some point the cover comes off the goal, and thankfully tonight was a night for us. But the league standings are so, so tight, so we know how important these three points are, and I’m really hoping that this just slingshots us into the next couple of weeks.”The Summit are still in the playoffs hunt, in tenth in the NWSL standings, but the team’s scrapbook of NWSL firsts is filling quickly, and Sonis has been central to that.