Titans soccer cruises to win over Caprock in Grand Junction

Big weekend ahead

[ by Than Acuff ]

The Crested Butte Titans soccer team reached the midway point of the regular season when they squared off against Caprock Academy in Grand Junction on Saturday, April 3 coming away with a 10-0 win.

Caprock is a fledgling program joining the league for the first time this season and has struggled in their jump from a JV schedule the past two years to a varsity program. And while they have suffered numerous lopsided losses this season in league play, the Titans still had specific goals in mind heading into the contest.

“We wanted to see consistent, hard play and continue to build on what we want, taking no steps backwards against a team that’s still developing,” says coach Bob Piccaro. “And we couldn’t afford to give up a goal, period.”

Crested Butte opened the scoring in the seventh minute of the game when Jacob Bernholtz threaded a pass through to Blue Gardner. The Caprock keeper made the initial save but Jamis Matlock jumped on the rebound to punch it home for a 1-0 lead.
The Titans then proceeded to score four more goals over the next 12 minutes of play with Gardner scoring two and solo strikes coming from Bernholtz and Gabi Marmolejo.

The Titans then pulled a player off the field and the game settled down for the next 15 minutes. Crested Butte dodged a bullet in the 29th minute when some defensive confusion gave Caprock a chance on net but some split-second decision-making helped deny the shot and the Titans escaped unscathed.

The brief scare ignited three more goals for Crested Butte in the final six minutes of the first half as two more goals from Bernholtz and one from Nathan Sawyer put the Titans up 8-0 at the half.

After a quiet opening 10 minutes of the second half, Crested Butte found their scoring touch again as Sawyer and Marmolejo each found the back of the net one more time to force officials to enforce the mercy rule ending the game with a 10-0 Titans’ win.

“It was good work for our new formation and trying to find that chemistry between the defense, the midfield and the strikers,” says captain Gabi Marmolejo. “We did well but of course there are still things to work on to improve.”

The Titans return to the grind this week as they head to Telluride for a rematch on Friday, April 9 and then host Colorado Rocky Mountain School at the Gunnison High School field on Saturday, April 10 at 1 p.m.

“It’s going to take the whole week to prepare,” says Marmolejo.