Girls’ soccer takes two over past week

Home game Friday at 4 p.m.

By Than Acuff 

The past week provided a lot of insight into what the Crested Butte Titans girls’ soccer team is capable of as they rattled off two wins. It started with a clinical 6-0 home win over league opponent Ridgway and ended with a gutsy 5-3 road win over the defending 2A state champions Loveland Classical.

The Ridgway Demons came out with a noticeable spring in their step looking to use their speed advantage to create chances on offense against the Titans on Thursday, March 26. Crested Butte struck first when Molly Miller chased down a through ball to go to goal. The Ridgway keeper made the initial save but Madalyn Fitzgerald corralled the rebound and passed it off to Calla Fenlon for Fenlon to finish for a 1-0 Titans lead five minutes into the game.

Ridgway continued to push forward with pace but the back three of Lola Wright, Rio Crabtree and Kalyn Buckel did a good job of holding the Ridgway speed in check and goalie Bryce Haskell came up with two big saves to keep the Titans’ slim one-goal lead.

Crested Butte then closed the first half with two more goals compliments of Camila Salcedo. Salcedo chased down a rebound off a shot from Fenlon to chip it past the Ridgway goalie and two minutes later took a pass from Miller down the middle to score a second time for a 3-0 Titans’ lead at halftime.

“The first 15 minutes or so we were shooting ourselves in the foot trying to force things,” says head coach Tom Lewis. “Once players came in off the bench, that game changed because they could see the issues on the field.”

Lewis and the coaching staff then switched up their formation in the second half to see what the team was capable of and after an erratic initial 10 minutes, the team settled into their roles and got back to scoring. A throw in sent Fenlon free on the flank for a cross and Thea Barney got on the end of the pass to poke it past the Ridgway keeper. Then minutes later Hadley Brewer settled a pass at midfield to scan the field and slipped it through to Miller for the Titans’ fifth goal and Summer Martin finished off the 6-0 win with a blast from 25 yards out.

“The Ridgway game was an all-around positive,” says Lewis. “We were able to work on two formations and score three goals in each for a positive result.”

The Titans then hit the road Friday to spend the night on the Front Range with a game Saturday against the defending 2A state champions, Loveland Classical, on a small and rock-hard field that disrupted Crested Butte’s preferred style of possession-based soccer.

“We decided to add in some long ball tactics to get behind their back line, and we knew their goalie didn’t like to come off her line,” says Lewis.

The move paid off in the first half as Miller scored off a long pass from Haskell and Fenlon scored as well for a 2-0 lead at halftime. The Titans then got their biggest challenge of the season so far as Loveland Classical came charging back in the second half. Loveland scored three goals in a row, including a penalty kick, to go up 3-2 with 20 minutes left.

The Titans coaches felt it was time to switch gears once again and shifted to a more attacking formation and the move played out as hoped as they scored three goals in the final 11 minutes.

“Once we switched, I felt we controlled the game a lot better and Loveland couldn’t adapt to our new formation,” says Lewis.

Fenlon scored off an assist from Crabtree to tie the game with 11 minutes left, Fenlon scored again with three minutes left off an assist from Miller and then Miller put the game away for good scoring off an assist from Wright for the 5-3 win.

“To go through all of that and still win by two goals was big,” says Lewis. “We were able to come through adversity and a tough field.”

The Titans now have three games this week as they hit the road to face league opponent Telluride and then come home to host 4A powerhouse Durango on Friday, April 3 at 4 p.m. The Titans get back on the bus for another non-league match against 3A Manitou Springs on Saturday.

“It’s a big week so we’re going to try and manage the minutes as best we can,” says Lewis. “Luckily, we have a deep bench with everybody available.”