The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“We feel like we can play with anyone but there’s a lot to work on”
By Than Acuff
Following a valiant effort for three quarters against Telluride on Friday, March 20, the Crested Butte Titans lacrosse team rallied to a 9-8 win over the Vanguard School on Saturday, March 21.
The Telluride Miners would be a tough matchup for the Titans having built their program over the past several years. Nevertheless, the Titans proved what they are capable of through the first three quarters before the Miners pulled away for the 12-4 win.
The Miners jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter but following a man-up situation and a timeout, the Titans stepped up to score on a broken play when Luke Walton sprinted to goal to shoot. The Miner goalie made the initial stop, but Walton got a second chance on the ensuing ground ball to scoop it up and score.
The Miners continued to dominate ball possession in the second quarter, but Merrick Jeffery, Vinnie Sciortino and Everett Maxwell remained on point in their defensemen roles and goalie Mason Colucci made a handful of saves to keep the game tight.
With nothing available in close, the Miners resorted to shooting from distance getting one past Colucci to go up 3-1 seven minutes into the second quarter, but the Titans answered back 40 seconds later as Dawson Eastep scooped the ball off the turf to fire it past the Miner goalie. Telluride scored in the waning minutes of the first half, but the Titans headed into the break looking to remain tight with Telluride in the second half.
“The defense was doing a great job keeping us in the game,” says head coach Carter Brock. “Having our first game on the new turf helped and everyone was stoked.”
The Titans continued their efforts in the third quarter and after killing off a two-minute man-down situation, they pulled back to within one of the Miners when Walton beat his man to score. Colucci continued to come up with the needed saves, but the Miners had the final say of the third scoring two goals in a span of a minute to take a 6-3 lead into the fourth quarter.
The relentless Miners pressure eventually cracked the Titans as Telluride outscored Crested Butte 6-1 in the fourth quarter with Wyatt Cook providing the lone goal for the Titans.
“There were a lot of good things, but we just didn’t capitalize on our offensive opportunities and that eventually killed our morale,” says Brock. “We feel like we can play with anyone but there’s a lot to work on. Four goals won’t win you a lacrosse game.”
Crested Butte returned to their home turf the following day to host the Vanguard School Coursers for a back-and-forth battle that the Titans would close out in the end. Senior midfielder AJ Hegeman was back from an injury to help the Titans effort, and Brock and the coaching staff used the non-league game as an opportunity to experiment.
“It’s always a fun battle with them,” says Brock. “We started backup goalie Tristan Loftis and tried some new things.”
Vanguard built a 3-2 lead after the first quarter, but the Titans took a 4-3 lead into halftime as they netted two and held Vanguard scoreless. The Titans scored the next two goals to go up 6-3 but the Coursers capitalized on a two-minute non-releasable penalty to score three goals and tie the game up. Brock then turned to Colucci to get back in net for the fourth quarter to continue getting players key reps.
“Tristan did great,” says Brock. “He had to face a bunch of man-downs and made a lot of saves.”
The game ended on a whirlwind as Crested Butte scored three consecutive goals to go up 9-6 with just under two minutes left to play. The Coursers responded scoring two goals in a 10-second stretch, but the Titans clamped down, including Walton blocking a shot down the stretch, to seal the 9-8 win. Walton finished with four goals and an assist, Eastep had two goals and an assist, Bennett Crabtree scored one, Cook had two goals and three assists and Hegeman provided two assists.
Crested Butte returns to the road this week with a game in Grand Junction and two games in Durango.
“Grand Junction is another top team in the league, and we always battle with Durango,” says Brock. “Hopefully our offense can start putting the ball in the net.”
