Titans’ soccer struggling in spring action

0-4 is no way to go through life

Three years ago, the Crested Butte Titans developmental soccer team started testing the waters of participating in a spring season. Typically, boy’s high school soccer is played in the fall and the soccer fields in Crested Butte are generally covered in snow when the spring season starts, making practices on grass impossible.
Nevertheless, the high school coaching staff has seen some vast improvements in their individual players during spring workouts and entered in the Western Slope City League to get them some game experience as well.
The past two springs the Titans fared well. While losing several of their regular season games, they peaked in the postseason tournament to make a run at the tournament title both years.
This season is progressing much like the last two, but slightly worse.
Granted, the Titans have practiced a total of two times in a gym and are already four games into the season, but their last defeat on Saturday, April 5 stung, as they were decimated by Gunnison 8-1.
“Gunnison has a good team and Crested Butte played well at times but we had a hard time putting together a full half of soccer,” says coach Drew Canale.
The Titans kicked the season off three weeks ago with a double-header in Delta/Hotchkiss, dropping both games 2-0, 3-0. They followed that up with a 5-0 loss to Fruita the next Saturday.
“We’re not even fielding the same team week-in and week-out, so it’s kind of a hodge-podge right now,” says Canale. “We’re also rotating some young players in and definitely focused on development.”
The Titans pulled together for a couple of indoor workouts last week and were joined by a couple of savvy veterans to round out the young developmental squad. As a result, hopes were high heading into the Gunnison game.
“I did have some confidence going into the game, to a certain extent,” says Canale. “We got some key players back on the team the week before, which I thought would help.”
Those hopes were quickly dashed though, as the Gunnison team came out firing on all pistons. Led by a core group of talented players with a stout supporting squad, Gunnison rattled the Titans’ cage a couple of times before finding the back of the net 10 minutes into the game.
Gunnison struck again 10 minutes later to build a 2-0 lead midway through the first half.
Crested Butte regrouped and started to dictate play but the Gunnison defense collapsed to defend their net. Sam Reaman fired off two brilliant shots from 20 yards out off passes from Isaac Evans, but the Gunnison net minder came up with big saves on both to push the ball wide.
Crested Butte continued to push but failed to find the back of the net, to enter halftime still down by two.
The floodgates opened up in the second half as Crested Butte mixed up their lineups, while Gunnison continued to gain steam throughout the game.
Crested Butte managed to hold off the initial attack as Taylor Acheson and Evans worked hard in the midfield and Nate Hoskin and Thomas Taaca proved stout on defense, but Gunnison repeatedly regrouped to build their attack out of the back and move numerous players into the offensive third of the field.
Gunnison rattled off five more goals in the second half, including two by following up on shots off the post to stuff the rebound home. In the end Jorge Rodriguez, Allan Navarrete, Moises Navarrete and Jordan Duft accounted for Gunnison’s eight goals, while Crested Butte managed to tally one goal on a penalty kick by Prawit Durgan.
“We were hoping for a win in Gunnison, but it wasn’t meant to be,” says Canale.
 Gunnison’s record now stands at 1-0-2, while Crested Butte sits at the bottom of the standings with a record of 0-4.
Crested Butte will take a break from games during their April break and then return to action on Saturday, April 26 with two more games in Gunnison.
“I believe it will work out as the season progresses. We have talent—we just need to practice more, play together as a team more and play harder,” says Canale.