Late-season slide leaves Titans soccer team short of state bid

Three-game losing streak to close season

After charging through the opening weeks of league play and rattling off five wins in a row, the Titans high school soccer team fell apart in the final two weeks, to drop three games in a row and finish one game shy of a bid to the 3A state tournament.
The finishing blow came last Thursday as the Titans fell to the Ridgway Demons 1-0. The post-season was on the line for both teams heading into the match, though things were looking better for Ridgway than Crested Butte. A Demon win would guarantee the defending league champion their third trip to the state tournament in a row.
A Titans win, and other results elsewhere in league play, may have pushed the Titans on.
In the end, it didn’t matter.
Cognizant of the ramifications of the match result, the Demons opened the game full throttle, getting a couple of chances to break the game open early. As has been the case all season long, the Titans defense held off the initial attack, allowing the rest of the team time to wake up and focus on the task at hand.
Senior goalkeeper Ben Frame made two quick saves to hold the scoreless tie and the Titans midfield and offense started to click, pushing the tempo on the Demon defense.
The work of seniors Jake Grogg and Sam Evans up top opened up a handful of chances for Crested Butte but the Demon defense was equally stout, holding the line at the top of the penalty box.
The Titans maintained control of the game the remainder of the half but couldn’t find the final touch to start the scoring, and the two teams went into the half deadlocked in a scoreless draw.
As the Demon’s hometown crowd grew, so did the team’s effort and they took control of the game for the opening 10 minutes of the second half. Again Frame made a key save and again the defense held tight as Ridgway pressed.
The two teams then disintegrated into 20 minutes of boot ball, trading off long passes to no one in particular. What the two teams lacked in play, they more than made up for in smash-mouth effort, trading off licks on 50/50 balls in the middle third.
Sophomore Dylan Curtiss was called into action in the first half and continued to create havoc in the midfield in the second half, scrambling to pick up loose men and win loose balls.
Junior captain Ben Reaman finally spoke up to the atrocity of play on the field, reminding his teammates to calm down and find the open man. The team responded with a series of short passes looking for seams in the Demon defense, but there were none to be found as Ridgway’s back four proved dominant.
The crushing blow came with five minutes left in the game when pressure from the Ridgway midfield forced an errant pass and the Demons seized the opportunity.
With the Titans pushing up, the defense was left to fend for themselves and Ridgway capitalized with a quick through ball to find a man open inside the Titans 18. The Demon pushed the ball past the outstretched arms of Frame and sealed the 1-0 win earning a trip to the big show and ending the Titans’ season for good.