Titans soccer bounces back from break with two wins

Ranked first in 2A

By Than Acuff 

It’s always a little bit of a mystery as to what team will return from the April break and while the Crested Butte Titans girls’ soccer team was a bit shaky in their first game following the week off, they recovered in their next two matches of the week are now 8-2-2 and sitting on top of the state 2A rankings.

The Titans had just one practice before their game against the Ridgway Demons on Tuesday, April 21 so it was mostly focused on just getting their feet under them to prepare for the league game.

“We tried to get them on the ball in game situations as much as possible without overdoing it,” says head coach Tom Lewis.

And while the Titans beat the Demons earlier this season 6-0, the game would be far more challenging the second go around as Ridgway was missing four starters in that first match. The mix of a weeklong break, a full Ridgway squad and sundry other issues ultimately became apparent as the Demons outpaced the Titans to hand them a 2-1 loss with the goal for Crested Butte coming from Molly Miller.

“We were missing chances and not doing what we needed to do,” says Lewis. “It was a reality check that I think set us up better for the rest of the week.”

The Titans got another practice in before they returned to the road to face the Telluride Miners. And what they worked on in that practice appeared to play out in the opening 10 minutes of the game as the Titans unlocked the back line of the Miners twice with short passes to send both Miller and Calla Fenlon through for shots on goal.

While the initial looks were stopped by the Miner keeper, Crested Butte eventually cracked the seal 12 minutes in when Miller dropped the ball to Nora Thomes and Thomes slid the ball back through to Miller for her to poke it past the Miner keeper for a 1-0 lead that held until halftime.

“We had some good combinations to create chances,” says Lewis. “We just asked them to continue to create those chances through combinations and look to get players in behind with smaller passes because of the field and how small it was.”

Crested Butte opened the second half doing nearly the impossible in the tight quarters of the Miners’ field connecting passes on quick passes and then looked long five minutes in as Summer Martin played a ball over the top for Miller to run onto and finish for a 2-0 lead.

Arguably the nicest goal of the afternoon came seven minutes later as Thomes and Fenlon connected in the midfield moving the ball through the top of the attacking third to push a pass through to Thea Barney on the flank. Barney ran onto the pass and drove a low cross to Miller inside the 18-yard box and Miller tucked it in for a 3-0 Titans lead.

“That was exactly what we worked on in practice on Wednesday and talked about at halftime,” says Lewis.

The game slowed down a bit midway through the second half, but Crested Butte caught fire once again down the stretch and Fenlon finished off the Miners for good with a left-footed strike from the top of the box to seal the 4-0 win.

“It would have been ideal to be a little more clinical but, at the end of the day, to walk away with a 4-0 win in Telluride after a tough loss was great,” says Lewis.

The Titans then closed the three-game stretch at home against the Salida Spartans with Senior Night on Friday, April 24. While the Titans were at the end of a long week, so were the Spartans having played three games already before facing the Titans. Nevertheless, the Spartans always bring a quality game to the field, and it would prove to be another test for the Titans.

“We knew it would be difficult,” says Lewis. “Both teams know a lot about each other.”

Crested Butte came out on the front foot against Salida and after staving off a chance by Salida early, Crested Butte went on the attack. Salida’s well-organized defense managed to hold the Titans at bay initially but pressure on the ball by Miller forced a Spartan to turn and push the ball outside. Barney was right there to collect it and with little to no angle, fired a shot over the keeper and inside the far post for a 1-0 Titans’ lead.

The Titans continued to control the flow of the game as the back line held off the Spartan attacks while Crested Butte’s midfield continued looking for combinations in the attacking third.

Their constant pressure eventually led to a corner kick 10 minutes into the second half and Fenlon dropped the ball just outside the six-yard box for Martin to push in for a 2-0 lead.

“We worked on corners a lot before the break and I think we’re seeing a better product of kids committing to attacking the ball matched with a quality of service,” says Lewis.

Salida did put a scare into the Titans six minutes later though as they pounced on a short pass near the Titans goal to score bringing a heightened sense of stress to the big game. Nevertheless, Crested Butte remained composed to hold onto their slim one-goal lead until the final whistle for the 2-1 win.

“Truthfully, it was not our best performance, but I thought we controlled the game,” says Lewis. “Overall, I would much rather go through the adversity we did this past week and come out of it with the results we did. It exposed some issues, and we were able to learn and adapt. All three games were incredibly unique games where we had puzzles to work out.”

The Titans close out the regular season with three games as they face Telluride once more then head to Montrose on Thursday, April 30 for a tough challenge against a quality 4A opponent and finish it off on the road against Colorado Springs Christian on Saturday, May 2. The Titans then head into the post season the following week.

“We always want to go in as the number one,” says Lewis. “One of our goals at the start of the season was to finish top four so we can have home field advantage through the first two rounds.”