Titans soccer climbing to top of league

Take two on weekend road trip

The Crested Butte Titans soccer team is on top of the Region 5, a.k.a. the Southwest League, standings with a record of 4-1 following a successful road trip through the southwest part of the state last weekend.

Every year, the Titans close the first half of league play with a road trip to face Bayfield and Pagosa Springs. Both teams prove tough adversaries for the Titans every season but this time around, Crested Butte was on a mission.
They opened the weekend against the Bayfield Wolverines on Friday, September 24 and the biggest question of the evening was, could the Titans recapture the intensity they had a week earlier against Ridgway?
The question was quickly answered as senior captain Henry Linehan and sophomore Jesse Reeves pumped in two goals in a minute to give the Titans a 2-0 lead.
Junior captain Ben Reaman added a third strike in the 29th minute, and junior Luis Aguirre and senior Sam Evans closed the half with a goal each, to put the Titans on top 5-0 by halftime.
Crested Butte spent a majority of the second half working on possession, but the Wolverines kept pressing, looking to break the seal just once.
The Titans defense anchored by senior captain Sky Egelhoff and senior netminder Ben Frame held off the Wolverine attack, and the Titans struck once more in the 80th minute when freshman Pharwit Durgan slipped a pass through to Aguirre for one last goal to cap the 6-0 Titans win.
Crested Butte returned to action on Saturday, September 25 against the Pagosa Springs Pirates. Every year the Pirates are by far the fittest team in the league, and have stolen several wins from the Crested Butte Titans with late-game heroics.
Crested Butte opened and closed the first half Saturday morning in top form. Aguirre netted his third goal of the weekend off a pass from Linehan in the first minute of the game.
The Pirates pushed the pace to open up a number of shots in close, but the Titans defense cleared the threats away to hold the slim 1-0 lead.
Evans converted a penalty kick in the 25th minute, and then closed the half with another goal running onto a chip pass from Linehan to give the Titans a 3-0 lead at halftime.
No lead is safe against the Pirates, and 10 minutes into the second half, Pagosa looked to make another miraculous comeback. Despite being down a man, the Pirates pressured and won nearly every loose ball. Their efforts were rewarded in the ninth minute as they scored off a penalty kick.
The Titans defense came through again to hold off the Pagosa surge, and Frame denied a shot to the upper corner to maintain the Titans’ lead.
Linehan scored off a pass from Aguirre in the 61st minute to rebuild the Titans three-goal lead, but Pagosa responded five minutes later on a direct kick to pull back within two.
Evans put an end to the back-and-forth action in the second half single-handedly, when he blocked a clear by the Pagosa sweeper in the final minute of play and took the free ball 30 yards to goal for the hat trick, finishing the Pirates off for good 5-2.
The Titans now have four home games in a row over the next three weeks, starting with a game against Lake City on Thursday, September 30 at 4 p.m.