Crested Butte U-18 soccer peaks in post-season tournament

“The team played fantastic”

It was a tough pill to swallow. In fact, it felt like a kick in the teeth from a bronze boot.
The Crested Butte U-18 club soccer team headed to Glenwood Springs on Saturday, May 11 for the Western Colorado City League postseason tournament and a shot at the coveted Bronze Boot trophy. While they finished the day with two wins and a tie, they were denied a spot in the championship game and finished the day taking third place in the tournament.
The team closed out the regular season in third place with a record of 3-3-1. Strangely, despite being ranked third out of six teams, Crested Butte drew the first-seeded Glenwood Springs Ice in the opening game of the tournament.
Nevertheless, Crested Butte stepped up to the challenge outplaying the number one team for the entire first half. Their effort offered up three golden scoring chances for Crested Butte but the Glenwood keeper was spot-on, making key saves to keep the game locked in a scoreless tie at halftime.
Rather than continuing to press for shots, Crested Butte imploded and was pinned in their defensive zone for the opening 15 minutes of the second half. Net minder Ian Dethloff made two big saves and Cal Fenerty had his defense scrambling to pick up men in the penalty area to hold off the initial attack.
Crested Butte soon retook control of the game to mount a couple of final counterattacks but both teams would come up short and finish in a 0-0 tie.
“The team played fantastic,” says coach Drew Canale. “The offense was a little slow in the first game but we played them to a 0-0 tie after losing to them 4-0 a week ago.”
That left Crested Butte in the dubious position of the numbers game, or so they thought.
Glenwood Ice would go on to beat a team out of Fruita 4-0 so all Crested Butte had to do was beat that same Fruita team by more and they would advance to the finals.
Crested Butte did that and then some, taking the bull by the horns to rattle off four goals in the first half alone.
After threatening for the opening 10 minutes, Crested Butte found the back of the net to go up 1-0. Two minutes later Jesse Reeves took the ball down the left sideline to send a low cross that slipped by the keeper for a 2-0 lead.
Pal Kollar then took matters into his own hands 20 minutes into the first half. Kollar received a pass at midfield and turned looking to distribute. With the Fruita defenders collapsing to pick up open players, Kollar found a seam down the middle and dribbled straight to net and scored.
Crested Butte got another strike from Sam Reaman and then Anna Fenerty capped the drubbing, scoring in the 58th minute for the 6-0 Crested Butte win.
That left Crested Butte tied with Glenwood Ice in pool play with each team 1-0-1. Common sense would dictate that since Crested Butte beat the common opponent Fruita 6-0 while Glenwood Ice only won 4-0, Crested Butte would win the pool and advance to the finals.
Unfortunately, tournament rules strayed from common sense and the tiebreaker was determined by who finished higher in the regular season standings. That meant Glenwood Ice got the bid for the finals while Crested Butte was left to play for third place.
“We thought we were going to qualify for the final based on goal-differential alone,” explains Canale. “But some unique tournament rules factored in regular league play. That was a bit of a disappointment.”
Discouraged but far from done, Crested Butte took the field against Glenwood B and fell behind 1-0 in the first half. Despite the deficit, Crested Butte picked up their play in the second half to send one last message to tournament organizers. Isaac Evans stepped into a pivotal role, shutting down Glenwood’s key playmaker in the midfield.
That effort opened up midfielders Prawit Durgan, Taylor Acheson, Solon Gray and Justin Smith to take control in the middle and open up opportunities up front.
Furthermore, Reeves replaced Dethloff in net in the second half and Dethloff pushed up to striker, joining Kollar in creating further havoc.
Reeves pulled off a series of brilliant saves in net and with 10 minutes left in the game, Crested Butte converted on a corner kick as Cal Fenerty crashed the goal mouth to drill home a head ball and tie it up 1-1, forcing the game into overtime.
The two teams stumbled through the first five minutes of extended play and Dethloff stepped back onto the field at striker for the final five-minute period.
Time dwindled and Glenwood pressed but the Crested Butte defense held tight and opened up a counter-attack. Gray carried the ball down the sideline and sent a low cross into the penalty area for Dethloff to bang home the game-winning goal in the final minute of the overtime.
“The focus went back to having fun,” says Canale. “Everybody enjoyed themselves and played some great soccer. It was definitely a success.”