The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Limited numbers make for more cohesive play
by Than Acuff
After a frightening opening 10 minutes, the West Elk Soccer Association (WESA) U18 boys team settled into their game to edge out a 2-1 win over Aspen on Saturday, May 7.
Things were looking dubious for the winless club as SAT testing dropped their roster numbers from 20 players down to 12. Furthermore, the majority of those players were upperclassmen, leaving the team with just freshmen and sophomores for the game.
“We were concerned because we were losing our older players and wouldn’t have any subs so we’d have to run the whole game,” says player Woody Martineau.
Nevertheless, it appeared the smaller numbers and younger players proved fortuitous as they found their groove throughout the match and played the best game of the spring.
Aspen came out running and gunning, sending long passes through the back four defenders of WESA to set up a couple of golden scoring opportunities. Fortunately, two early attempts flew wide of the net but they managed to poke one past goalie Slater Weil to take an early 1-0 lead.
“We were just nervous since we were missing players and they were really pressing on offense and sending lots of numbers,” says Martineau.
Yet, as the game progressed, WESA started to dominate possession in the midfield paced by early pressure on the ball from both Michael Hensley and Oliver Houseman. Jovany Aguirre jumped into the midfield mix as well to scoop up loose balls and WESA looked to the flanks to help build their attack.
“We just calmed down and started passing the ball more and were able to drop some players back to help distribute the ball,” explains Martineau.
The shift in poise and possession eventually paid off in the 42nd minute. As WESA looked wide to build their attack, it opened up the weak side and Dylan Eaton found a lane to overlap from defense. The cross came into the top of the penalty area and Eaton slipped through to pick up the pass and push it past the Aspen keeper, tying the game 1-1 heading into halftime.
“After Dylan scored our mindset changed and we started thinking we could win,” says Martineau.
They carried that energy into the second half dictating play in the midfield and pushing numbers up on offense. Again. The focus was on pushing the attack wide and finding opportunities with quick switches to the weak side. Aguirre sprinted wide from his center striker position to receive a pass and put a quick cross into the 18-yard box as Alexander Dumas sprinted past the lone defender to knock the ball over the Aspen keepers head for a 2-1 lead with 20 minutes left to play.
WESA continued to work hard throughout the field, dominating loose balls and finding easy passes to maintain possession and stemming Aspen’s chances at a counterattack.
“We were definitely beating them to 50/50 balls, jumping on loose touches and putting a lot of pressure on their players,” says Martineau.
Eventually the lack of subs proved troublesome for WESA as they spent the final 10 minutes pinned in their own half, but the defense held tough and Weil came up with a couple key saves to preserve the 2-1 win.
“The game devolved into us just booting the ball upfield, but Aspen panicked as their individual players tried dribbling through us and that worked to our advantage,” says Martineau.
The WESA U18 team will host league powerhouse Basalt on Saturday, May 14 at the Crested Butte South field at 1:30 p.m. and remain at home on Sunday, May 15 to face Montrose at the Community School field.
