Titan’s soccer rattles off two league wins at home

Tough week ahead

The Titans offense has sputtered most of the season but intense work over the past two weeks paid off last weekend as they scored a total of seven goals over two games for back-to-back league wins. The Titans league record improved to 5-2-2 and has them back on track for a potential bid to the state tournament in two weeks.
Coach Mike Martin called the team out last week, stating, “We need to come out guns blazing,” in their home game against the Pagosa Springs Pirates on Friday.
And for all intents and purposes, the team did just that, scoring three goals in the first 15 minutes of the game and finishing with a 4-1 win.
“I think it was our intensity right off the bat,” says Martin. “The team was driven to score. That was good to see.”
They opened the game winning 50/50 balls and pushing the pace, taking the Pirates by storm. Prawit Durgan started it off in the sixth minute taking a pass at the top of the 18 from Jesse Reeves and driving it home.
Eight minutes in, Reeves created another score, finding Jose Cantu alone inside the 18 for a 2-0 lead.
Durgan capped the initial outburst when he took a pass from Sam Reaman and cracked it through the Pagosa defense.
The Pirates recovered from the opening onset and the two teams played even soccer for the remainder of the first half as Crested Butte carried their 3-0 lead into halftime.
The pace continued in the second half and the Pirates got their first tally of the afternoon on a corner kick, finding a narrow slot by the post after a mad scramble inside the penalty area.
But before Pagosa Springs could gain any momentum, the Titans responded 10 minutes later. Dakota Wiggins chased a ball down the end line to drop it to Reeves. Reeves floated a cross into the six-yard box and Pal Kollar crashed the net for the head goal and a 4-1 Titans advantage.
The Crested Butte defense did the rest to hold off any semblance of a Pagosa counterattack to seal the 4-1 win.
Unfortunately, the Titans did suffer a big loss when Reeves, who had three assists that afternoon, went down in the second half suffering a separated shoulder, ostensibly ending his season.
The Titans stayed home on Saturday to host the Bayfield Wolverines. Crested Butte was noticeably flat, still recovering from their effort the day before against Pagosa.
In addition, the loss of Reeves up top meant a loss of speed. After 30 minutes of sloppy play, the Titans finally broke through when Kollar took a pass inside the six-yard box and turned on it to push the ball through three Bayfield defenders for a 1-0 lead.
The Titans’ slow play continued in the second half though their position play was spot on, as the defense turned away a handful of Bayfield attacks.
Fifteen minutes into the second half, Reaman scored on a corner kick, banging home a head ball off a service from Durgan for a two-goal advantage.
Cantu put the game out of reach for good scoring off a cross from Reaman in the 75th minute to ice the 3-0 shutout.
“We came away with the win and continued to push forward as a team,” says Martin. “We just weren’t firing on all cylinders.”
The Titans take this week off from competition and then close the season next week with three league games in four days. They head to Ridgway on Tuesday, October 16 and then host Alamosa on Thursday and Center on Friday, October 18-19.
While it appears the team will be without Reeves for the final stretch, Martin believes the team can still put together a strong finish.
“It’s a big loss,” says Martin. “We need some of the other players to step up. If we have a couple key players really step it up and the whole team push forward, we should have some positive results.”
If the Titans win all three, they may get a bid to the state tournament.
“The focus of the final week is to come out and win all three,” says Martin. “There’s no point thinking about state unless we can win the games.”