Crested Butte denied title at adult tournament

Where is the love, soccer Gods?

by Than Acuff

While most of you may have been watching the World Cup over the weekend, ok maybe just some of you, there were three Crested Butte teams looking to defend their home fields in the annual WESA Adult Coed Soccer Tournament Saturday and Sunday, June 27-28. Unfortunately, only one made it to the final, that was actually deemed a “friendly,” but I’ll get into that later.

The CB Kickers came into the weekend with their best roster ever, complete with numerous former male and female collegiate players as well as a Titan alumnus now playing in the pro soccer leagues in Australia.

The CB Legends team is a new team to the tournament that included numerous Titan alumni, a former international pro player as well, a former Division 1 women’s player and some CB Kickers from previous teams.

More importantly though, the Legends was a team put together by the children of Brian Fenerty and Enrique “Henry” Aguirre both of whom we lost in the past year and whose kids, Luis and Jovany Aguirre and Cal, Anna and Tess Fenerty all grew up playing soccer in Crested Butte and for the Crested Butte high school teams and represented as well on the field at the tournament.

Then there were the two over-40 division teams, Vintage FC who was a mix of former CB Kickers and Gunnison players, and the Gunnison team Mountain Legacy.

It’s a lot I know but, in the end, there were some good things, some not so good things and, as I mentioned before, only one team made it to the final, that was deemed a friendly.

Saturday started off with the original tournament organizer Jamie Watt who started it all back in 1995, on the sidelines and with a 10-4 win for the CB Kickers over a team out of Montrose. Brice Koval blasted a set piece five minutes into the game and while Montrose responded to tie it up, that was all defenders Ryan Abbott and JJ O’Neal would allow for a while as the Kickers would go on to score the next six goals with solo strikes coming from Tom Lewis, Graham Koval, Rebecca Calhoun and a hat trick from Hannah Crofut-Savard.

Montrose did manage to net three more during the second half, but Jamis Matlock found his scoring stroke and Brice completed his hat trick for the opening bludgeoning. They would continue that effort later in the day as they handed a team from Ridgway a 9-1 beating. The downside, the Kickers lost key striker Tom Lewis to a season-ending knee injury.

Unfortunately, some additional injuries and a wedding reception Saturday night would have a profound effect on the Kickers Sunday morning as they would lose in the semifinals to the eventual tournament winners out of Grand Junction.

Vintage FC lost 5-2 in their opening match of the weekend to a team from Boulder that played like they were more over 30 but not over 40. Vintage FC did rebound in their second game of the opening day with a resounding shutout win over Mountain Legacy. Paced by quick passing and led by the women on the team, Vintage FC racked up 12 goals in the win starting with Polly McGrane scoring off an assist from Ellen Teague. Eric Smith would score three minutes later, McGrane netted her second of the game three minutes after that and when Michael Sieman slipped though the Mountain Legacy backline to score, Vintage FC was up 4-0 just 12 minutes into the game.

Drew Canale, who spent years as the netminder for the Kickers, got to experience the sweet taste of scoring, drilling his shot to the low corner. Mike Eaton connected with Sieman for a series of passes to get on the end of one last pass and score and once Hannah Roberts curled her shot into the upper corner and Brent Roberts scored in the final minutes of the first half, Vintage FC was up 9-0.

Teague would then prove that she is deft with both feet banging her second goal off the crossbar and in with her left foot, Hannah netted a second goal and Smith capped the 12-0 win with his second goal of the game.

They would go into Sunday morning’s game needing a win and depleted by injuries as well. They called on Matt Schmalz to bring some energy and expertise to the field after falling behind 3-1, they would storm back in the final 10 minutes of the game to tie it up 3-3 with goals coming from a header by Kristin Coughlin and two strikes from Smith. Unfortunately, the tie left the over-40 title to go to the team from Boulder.

As for Legacy FC, what a rollercoaster. After winning their opening game 2-1, they returned to the field Saturday afternoon to face a team from Denver. Denver scored first but with the energy of playing with a purpose and a roster brimming with talent, they locked in defensively led by the work of Jovany and Katie McKernan and the 110-percent effort of Alex Augusta up top. The combination opened the midfield up and Carlos Franco took advantage of the space to score to tie the game 1-1 heading into halftime.

Augusta would be rewarded for his efforts six minutes into the second half scoring off an assist from Caitlyn Cox. Denver responded two minutes later to tie the game 2-2 but when Franco and Shawn Moran combined to set up Moran for a goal, the Legacy FC was back out front 3-2 only to have Denver eke out a 4-3 win in the final five minutes quashing Legacy’s hopes at a title shot.

Their game Sunday morning against another Denver team was more about pride than anything else and they were on the right track when Cox scored off a cross from McKernan to open the game. The Legacy defense got more quality minutes out of Mike Yaeger with assistance from Cisco Carballo and with goalie Slater Weil making a series of great saves and Cal Fenerty carrying on his father’s legacy on the field, Legacy seemed to hold Denver in check.

Denver did score in the final minute of the first half though but, once again, Augusta scored early in the second half with a blistering set piece shot off the post to take a 2-1 lead. Weil continued to stand on his head in net with numerous miraculous saves, but Legacy eventually succumbed to the constant Denver pressure to fall 3-2.

Seriously, where is the love, soccer Gods?