The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“One of the great things about this group of girls is that they’re incredibly coachable”
by Than Acuff
There’s no question that the talent is there—it’s just a matter of time before the Crested Butte Titans girls soccer team, and fans, will see it come to fruition.
After opening the season with four games, winning one, tying another and losing two, the Titans went through a dry spell of contests but used the break in action to continue working on a variety of areas.
“We have a wide variety of ability with this group of girls so one of things we wanted to focus on is leveling that out,” says assistant coach Alexis Charles. “Focus on fundamentals so we can build off of that and continue to work on our speed of play and transitions.”
The Titans remain a work in progress, yet they do possess the necessary tools for success. The team is anchored by quality goalkeeping by Rachael Potoker as well as back-up Anika Andersen. Furthermore, their defense appears firmly in place with Anabelle Faivre and Sarah Johnson teaming up well in the middle and Siena Truex and Corinna Donovan strong enough to shut down the outsides.
“I’m really impressed with our back four,” says Charles. “They’re willing to battle it out for everything and it’s been cool to see them figure out their shape in back and exciting to see them progress over the course of the season.”
The biggest struggle remains the Titans’ use of the entire field of play. With mountain weather limiting any full field workouts for them, their play is congested at times during games.
“We’ve been training a lot in small spaces and we’re used to playing close and it’s difficult for the girls to utilize all of the field space,” says Charles. “That’s something we have to adjust to.”
The Titans finally returned to action when they hosted the Bayfield Wolverines in Gunnison on Friday, April 8. The Wolverines program sits on top of the 2A region 4 standings, the very league Crested Butte will join next year, with an undefeated record of 4-0-1 and have a dominating striker up top with a solid midfield and disciplined defense to support her. The first time the two teams met this season, Bayfield’s physicality dictated most of the play.
This time around the Titans managed to match both Bayfield’s speed and physicality.
“We were much better with 50/50 balls and we were a lot stronger on the ball,” says Charles.
Bayfield held the ball in Crested Butte’s half for a majority of the first half and while the work of the Titan defense proved worthy, the pressure by Bayfield finally paid off as they broke the seal on the Titan’s net 20 minutes into the game.
Ten minutes later the Wolverines caught the Titans pushing up-field and fed their potent striker with a quick transition pass to send her free to net for a second Bayfield goal for a 2-0 lead at halftime.
With the Titans’ numbers depleted down to 13 players due to the ensuing April break, the coaches were left to make adjustments on the fly to get their players much needed rest whenever possible.
“We had only two subs and we were just trying to make the most of what we had,” says Charles.
The Titans coaches made a couple of adjustments at halftime, pulling Potoker out of net and sending her into the midfield to help create more of a midfield presence for the Titans. Andersen was placed in net for the second half and the moves had an immediate effect. The Titans found some room on the flanks with Stella Newman and Andersen came up big in the opening 10 minutes to deny Bayfield’s leading scorer from in-close.
“We’re starting to connect plays from defense, through the midfield and to offense,” says Charles. “That was great to see.”
While the Titans did manage to push into Bayfield’s half on several occasions, they were handed a blow as the Wolverines connected on a set play for a 3-0 lead in the 55th minute. Bayfield struck again 10 minutes later, taking advantage of another through-ball to their striker and the Titans struggled to find any clean looks at the Bayfield net, ultimately falling 4-0. Despite the loss, Charles saw a dramatic improvement from her team since the first time they played Bayfield this year.
“We saw drastic improvement in our communication and understanding of the game,” says Charles. “They’re the strongest team we’ve seen all season and that’s a team we can see ourselves beating when we have full numbers.”
The Titans have a big week following the April break as they host Ridgway on Tuesday, April 19 in Gunnison and then Montrose on Friday, April 22 also in Gunnison. Games are slated to start at 3:30 p.m. Charles expects to see the Titans continue to gain ground with each passing day as the season continues.
“One of the great things about this group of girls is that they’re incredibly coachable,” says Charles. “Every day at practice we see improvement.”
