The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Home game Thursday at 6 p.m. on Western turf
By Than Acuff
Wind was the big story at the Crested Butte Titans girls’ soccer game against the Colorado Springs Christian Lions on Saturday, April 6. The match was slated to be one of the biggest tests for the Titans this year as Colorado Springs Christian is the defending 2A state champion and handed the Titans a 7-0 loss during the regular season last year.
While the Titans were coming into the match on a three-game winning streak, including knocking off stout 3A opponent Salida, and had a full week of workouts leading up to the game, they were still missing some players.
“Practice-wise things went pretty well,” says head coach Tom Lewis. “It was good to get consecutive days of practices in and a good film session, but we had five players we would usually take that were unavailable.”
Still, both teams had a significant element to deal with as the wind was whipping through the venue before and during the game.
“It was blowing across the field but favored one direction better than the other, it was ferocious,” says Lewis. “We spoke about it before the game. The more we keep the ball on the ground, the better we can deal with it.”
Crested Butte had the wind to their advantage for the first half and managed to use it to generate more chances than the Lions, but it took a corner kick to make the difference on the scoreboard 18 minutes into the game. Leigh Harpel sent her corner kick into the crosswind and it hung up in the air for Molly Miller to run onto on the back post and push the ball in for a 1-0 Titans’ lead that held into the halftime break.
“We found that passing quickly on the ground to feet worked well due to the windy conditions and found lots of success from that in the first half,” says Harpel.
Crested Butte then turned to play into the wind in the second half but stuck with their plan as far as how to deal with the wind. The Lions had a weapon with the wind though as they had a player with a big throw that could carry into the edge of the 18-yard box from the sideline.
That threat bore fruit for the Lions 15 minutes into the second half as a long throw eventually landed at the feet of one of their players at the top of the 18-yard box and she drove her shot into the left corner to tie the game 1-1.
The Titans’ coaching staff then looked to their bench to provide fresh legs and energy in the midfield midway through the second half to hold Colorado Springs at bay while the Crested Butte backline proved on-point shutting off attacks down the middle as well as over the top on the flanks.
“Summer (Martin) and Dakota (Redden) had both of their wingers in their back pocket,” says Lewis. “Our defense and midfield did very, very well containing them.”
Crested Butte had one last look on a counterattack but just as they were pressing into the 18-yard box for one final look, the final whistle blew leaving the teams with a 1-1 tie.
“A draw is a good result against them,” says Lewis. “It made the girls realize that we might have a chance this year at something big.”
“We were happy to tie but we know we can definitely beat them and just weren’t able to capitalize on our opportunities in this game which is okay because we still tied them and played well,” adds Harpel. “Knowing that we can beat Colorado Springs and can score against them is super reassuring when going into the rest of our season and knowing where we stand against last year’s 2A champs.”
Crested Butte will host the Del Norte Tigers on Thursday, April 11 at Katy O. Rady field on Western’s campus at 6 p.m. and then face the Ridgway Demons on the road on Friday, April 12 before heading into the school’s April break. They return to action when they face Telluride, in Telluride, on Wednesday, April 24. Crested Butte’s next home game is against 4A team Durango on Thursday, April 25 at 6 p.m.
