Titans soccer season ends at state semifinals

“We are coming back next year for the win”

By Than Acuff 

And just like that, the 2025 Crested Butte girls’ soccer season was over as they fell to Flatirons Academy 1-0 in the semifinals of the 2A state tournament on Saturday, May 17. 

They opened the postseason with a 2-0 win over Gilpin County on Saturday, May 10 to advance to the quarterfinals to host the Frontier Academy Wolverines on Wednesday, May 14.

It was a dubious start for the Titans against Frontier Academy as the Wolverines scored five minutes into the game. Despite the early deficit, the Titans continued their efforts to establish possession in the midfield and create opportunities in the attacking third. A series of quick passes through the midfield sent Crested Butte forward with numbers and while Frontier Academy managed to push the ball out of harm’s way, it resulted in a corner kick and Calla Fenlon curled the ball from the corner into the net to tie the game 1-1 in the 12^th minute.

Ten minutes later a second goal by the Titans on a corner kick was called off but they continued to surge and broke through once again when Brie Polster slipped a pass ahead to Molly Miller and Miller tucked it away for a 2-1 Titans’ lead that held until halftime.

“That adversity early on was a great grounding moment,” says head coach Tom Lewis. “And the girls reacted well to it.”

Crested Butte remained on the front foot to open the second half and while an early shot from Dakota Redden was stopped, the Titans midfield dominated the ensuing punt from the Wolverines goalie and fed the ball to Fenlon who fired her shot off the bottom of the crossbar and in for a 3-1 lead four minutes into the second half.

“That one really helped put the nail in the coffin,” says Lewis. “It released any remaining tension that was there, and you could feel it.”

Frontier Academy did have two chances to pull back into the game midway through the second half, but Titans goalie Bryce Haskell made a diving save to deny a shot from distance and came off her line to close on an attacker forcing the shot wide to hold the Titans’ two-goal advantage.

“That was huge for the team and great for her confidence,” says Lewis.

The Titans struck once again six minutes later as Miller carried the ball to the endline to feed Kaylen Buckel inside the six-yard box and Buckel punched it in for a 4-1 lead. Four minutes later Buckel scored again to seal the 5-1 Titans’ win and send them to the semifinals.

“I think our team played one of our strongest games against Frontier Academy,” says captain Nora Thomes. “I think we connected really well in this game and our strengths of possessing the ball and controlling the game really showed and came together. This gave us a lot of confidence in our abilities to go forward with semis.”

Meanwhile, in the other quarterfinal match, defending 2A champion Flatirons Academy stunned the top-seeded Denver Christian Thunder defeating them in penalty kicks to set up a rematch of last year’s semifinal game between Crested Butte and Flatirons Academy.

“We felt that playing them in the semis again, that the universe gave us a shot at revenge from last year,” says Lewis. “It was exciting.”

“Our confidence going into semis was very high, we were excited for the rematch with Flatirons and hopefully beat them,” adds Thomes. “We had our coaches, our peers and our parents’ confidence in us fueling us as well.” 

They carried that excitement into the game from the opening kickoff as Crested Butte immediately went on attack setting up an early chance on the Bison net just four minutes into the game. That first five minutes set the tone for the remainder of the half as Crested Butte continued to press, holding the ball in the Flatiron Academy half for additional attacks but shots were either saved or missed the mark.

Pinned in their own half, the Bison never managed to mount any attack but the lone chance they did get, they scored on and took a 1-0 lead into halftime.

“During the first half I and I’m sure many other girls had it locked in that we were gonna win, as we had full control of the ball and, to be honest, Flatiron was flat with their game,” says Thomes. “So, when the second half started, we were still confident and ready to win the game, our mindset was, we will not lose this game.” 

“I was less nervous at halftime being down 1-0 than I was before the game,” adds Lewis. “I felt like we were doing everything we were supposed to and with the way the first half went, we were going to score.”

Crested Butte remained in control of the game in the second half as well with Miller firing a shot off the crossbar and two more chances coming inches away from tying the game in the opening 10 minutes of the second half. Every time Flatirons Academy looked to counter, midfielders Thomes, Teagan Turner, Summer Martin and Hadley Brewer would stop in its tracks while the back three of Rio Crabtree, Grace Bogard and Lola Wright had the Bison’s lone dangerous striker locked up.

The Titans held the ball in the Bison’s half of the field nearly the entire second half as well firing shots when available as the Bison retreated to hang on to their slim one-goal lead. As time wore on, Flatirons Academy dropped even further defensively and rode out the barrage by Crested Butte to hang on for the 1-0 win bringing an end to the Titans season. Crested Butte finished the game with close to 20 shots, maybe more, while the Bison had just two shots all game long.

“It wasn’t anyone’s fault,” says Lewis. “Aside from the lack of goals, it was as good a performance by the girls as their win over Frontier Academy.” 

“The result was very tough and heartbreaking,” says Thomes. “They dropped back into a very defensive type of play, giving us very little time to create any chances in their half. I think that this game very much humbled us, although I think we played amazing, and all the girls worked so hard. I think this taught us to not expect victory due to a couple of good games, every game is different and every team is different and this effects the result of a game and we need to go into each game having no expectations. And we just need to always work hard. We also need to work on finishing.”

While falling short of their hopes of making it to the state finals, and maybe even winning the title, Lewis looks back on the season fondly as he saw the team, both varsity and JV, develop and bond over the 13 weeks. 

“It’s one to be proud of,” says Lewis. 

“Overall, the season was great,” says Thomes. “We had an amazing set of freshmen who came in strong, which added not only to creating a strong JV team but also adding skill to varsity. We went through so much together bringing us closer and creating a family, from freezing cold late-night practices, to changing busses late at night in order to get home, to lots of feelings of victory, to the heartbreaking feeling of losing in semis for the second year in a row. We are coming back next year for the win. We deserve it.”

While the Titans lose three seniors from the varsity squad in Redden, Turner and Bogard, Lewis agrees they’re looking to be in the mix once again.

“Those three seniors are big losses, but we have great quality and a different quality coming up,” says Lewis. “We just keep building and adding.”