The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Headed to CSA Cup this weekend
[ by Than Acuff ]
The West Elk Soccer Association (WESA) u19 boys’ regular season closed out with a tough 4-0 loss to Colorado Mountain United (CMU) on Saturday, October 17 in Newcastle. The two teams faced each other twice earlier in the season, with WESA falling in both games by one goal. The third and final match between the two was more lopsided, as WESA was missing key players to their line up and CMU’s pace proved overwhelming over the course of the 80-minute match.
As is often the case, WESA looked solid through the first 15 minutes as they matched the pace and possession of their opponent but still struggled to find the nexus, moving possession at midfield into a cohesive attack. It seemed every time WESA has established control of the ball, CMU was quick to react with pressure on the ball, forcing the WESA players into hurried decisions and passes off-target.
“They definitely dominated the midfield more and had the ability for their forwards to take more risks,” says WESA striker Gabi Marmolejo.
The few times WESA was able to get the ball through to their striker corps of Marmolejo and Jacob Bernholtz, CMU had them wrapped up tight and the two strikers struggled to find any openings through the back line.
“They had one guy working to block passing lanes and we weren’t switching the field enough to create open spaces,” says Marmolejo.
WESA’s back three of Nathan Miller, Otto Billingsley and Kaiden Marziano stood up to the test against CMU’s strikers through the majority of the first half but the continued midfield support opened up seams in WESA’s defensive third. WESA netminder Alex Eldridge came up with several big saves to deny the initial series of shots but CMU eventually broke through to take a 1-0 lead into halftime.
“We talked about passing the ball more and making sure we look to play it down both sides,” says Marmolejo.
CMU’s mix of pace, possession and pressure continued to wear down the WESA team over the course of the second half. Miller had to step from the field with an injury and Ace Gaither filled in on defense to continue the effort of the back line but continued pressure had the WESA side scrambling.
WESA started to find limited success on the flank with Bernholtz and Marmolejo connecting to find lanes up the flank and their work set up a great chance inside the six-yard box for WESA but CMU turned it away.
“That showed some signs of success but at that point we were pretty tired with a limited bench,” says Marmolejo.
While Eldridge continued to stand on his head in net, CMU would eventually finish three more times to seal the 4-0 win and, more than likely, the league title.
“There’s a lot we can take from the season and we have a good, young team that just needs a little more development,” says Marmolejo. “It set the bar for where we are, where we need to get to and what other teams look like.”
WESA will return to workouts this week as they prepare for the CSA Cup in Durango Saturday and Sunday, October 24-25.
“Hopefully we will have a couple more subs and pull it all together and play our hardest,” says Marmolejo. “You always hope to win but we just need to play our game and play as hard as we can. That’s all you can hope for and do.”
