The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Home games Friday and Saturday
By Than Acuff
After losing two road games and one home game to league opponents, the Titans ended the long stretch on a high note as they ran away to a 12-5 win over the Vanguard Coursers on Friday, March 21.
They had a rough showing against the Fruita Monument Wildcats in their last meeting last year but looked to avenge the loss in their first meeting this season on Thursday, March 13.
Things started off well for the Titans as they opened the scoring in the first quarter, but Fruita Monument responded scoring two goals to close out the first quarter up 2-1.
Fruita Monument tacked on a third goal to go up 3-1 before Wyatt Cook fired from distance to keep the Titans in the hunt. While Frasier Birnie continued to dominate faceoffs, Crested Butte struggled to create off his efforts and Fruita Monument scored the next three goals for a 6-2 lead at halftime.
Crested Butte showed some signs of life to open the second half and Rowan Dishmon scored on a broken play to pull back within three and while Fruita Monument responded, AJ Hegeman fired from up top to keep the Wildcats well within reach.
Unfortunately, the Wildcats ramped it up throughout the rest of the second half to outscore the Titans 8-1 down the stretch for the 15-5 win.
“The final score doesn’t reflect how hard we battled,” says head coach Carter Brock. “We will go into the second game with them with a different game plan.”
The Titans were back on the road two days later to face the Montrose Red Hawks determined to undo the damage done from the previous game. They started it off with a long offensive possession and fired several shots, but their attempts missed the mark. Mason Colucci came up with a couple saves and Crested Butte rallied off the effort to finally crack the seal on the Montrose net when Dawson Eastep scored to close the first quarter.
The Red Hawks tied it back up early in the second quarter, but Birnie won the ensuing faceoff and drove to goal to score which put the Titans back on top 2-1. The Red Hawks scored on a man up situation to tie it back up, but the Titans had the final say of the half as Eastep battled through four Red Hawk players to drive to the goal and fire off a spinning one-handed shot for a 3-2 Titans’ lead.
The game remained back and forth through the second half with Eastep and Luke Walton scoring for the Titans, but Montrose ended up edging out a 7-6 win.
Crested Butte returned home to host the Telluride Miners on Thursday, March 20 who came into the game undefeated and sitting in first place in the league. They remained undefeated as they handed the Titans a 13-2 loss ending a tough three-game stretch of league games over seven days.
“It seems like our league is getting stronger,” says Brock. “Our defense is really starting to hone in on playing really good coverage, we just struggled in transitions.”
The Titans then hit the road the very next day to take on the Vanguard School Coursers. The Titans found themselves in another back-and-forth battle with the Coursers as the two teams traded goals throughout the first half. Birnie scored three goals, and Dishmon and Eastep each scored one, but the Coursers tied the game in the final seconds of the first half to send the teams into halftime tied 5-5.
The Titans defense then clamped down and Crested Butte started clicking on offense and breaking Vanguard’s ride to create additional chances in transition. Cook broke loose to feed Walton for the Titans’ first goal of the second half. Cook then assisted Birnie for a second Titans’ strike and Cook fired from the top for a third Titans goal and an 8-5 lead.
Crested Butte continued to pour it on in the fourth quarter as Walton set up Dishmon in close for a goal, Cook beat his man one-on-one for a 10th goal and then scored on an empty Vanguard net minutes later during a restart. Dishmon then set up Walton on the doorstep for another Crested Butte goal as the Titans closed out the 12-5 win.
The Titans schedule gets even busier this week with four games over five days including hosting Durango on Friday, March 28 at 4 p.m. and then again on Saturday at 11 a.m.
“They’re starting to click and understand the game and hopefully we can piece it together and win a couple games this week,” says Brock. “We just don’t really have time to work on things.”
