The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Closes regular season with three league matches
[ by Than Acuff ]The Crested Butte Titans boys’ soccer team closed out a tough week of contests with a 1-0 loss to the Vail Mountain Gore Rangers at home on Friday, September 29.
They opened the week of play on Saturday, September 23 with a 2-2 draw with Telluride. They then hosted Gunnison three days later and battled to a scoreless draw. While disappointed with the first two results, Crested Butte looked to rebound with an upset win when they hosted Vail Mountain for their Homecoming game on Friday. The task would be tough as Vail Mountain is the defending 2A state champions and arguably one of the top 2A programs in the state again this year.
“Vail Mountain is very tough,” says coach Matt Wilson. “We didn’t know a lot about them, so we focused on what we could control, which was to come out swinging from the very first whistle.”
Crested Butte got a couple early chances, but Vail Mountain had the first strike 20 minutes into the game when a midfielder sliced through and slid a pass to their striker to tuck it in the corner for a 1-0 lead.
The Titans continued to battle with tight shape on defense, but they struggled to gain momentum in the attacking third and entered halftime down 1-0.
“The first half went better than expected, but we just couldn’t find the back of the net,” says Wilson. “Defensively, we only made one mistake, but unfortunately that mistake led to a goal. We were confident there were some areas on the pitch we could exploit, so we made those necessary tactical adjustments and confidence was high going into the second half.”
Vail Mountain came out in the second half on the front foot looking to build some room with another strike, but the Titans held off the initial surge and looked to capitalize on counter attacks. The effort did produce a couple opportunities on the Vail Mountain net, but their keeper made the necessary saves as Vail Mountain held on for the 1-0 win.
“The boys did exactly what we asked and played with confidence and intensity throughout the entire second half,” says Wilson. “The game never felt out of reach, but we just couldn’t finish the few opportunities we had. Obviously, we would have liked to come away with a win, but I couldn’t be more proud of the way the boys played. We’re such a young team, but this team has grit and determination and isn’t scared to go toe to toe with anyone, including Vail Mountain.”
The Titans return to league play to close out the regular season with a game against Caprock Academy this week and following the school’s October Break, they finish with games against Ridgway and Telluride the third week in October.
