Heading into Sunday’s pivotal men’s soccer matchup, Fort Lewis College and Colorado Mines had played to a draw the last three regular season matchups. This time around, however, a senior day adrenaline boost at Dirks Field made all the difference.
The Skyhawks honored their seniors before the match, and the home team used the positive energy from the largest crowd of the season to get an early goal. Churchill Onumonu’s 10th-minute strike was the only goal scored Sunday as Fort Lewis beat Colorado Mines 1-0.
Skyhawks goalkeeper Elliot Chadderton registered his fifth shutout of the season and made six saves in Sunday’s win, his ninth of the year. With the win, FLC (9-6-1, 8-3-1 Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference) jumped the Orediggers (8-5-3, 7-3-2 RMAC) in the RMAC standings and currently sit in third place.
“Any time you can beat a program like Colorado Mines, it’s a big win,” Fort Lewis head coach David Oberholtzer said. “We match up well with each other and we knew it would be a fight. We wanted to get an early one, and it was huge.”
The Skyhawks charged out of the gates and put the Orediggers on their heels immediately. After a few good chances misses, Onumonu took a pass from Dana Kowachek and buried his team-high seventh goal of the season to give the home team an early edge.
“I saw Dana and I knew he was going to flick it like he did so I made a run,” Onumonu said. “He made made a great play and I just finished it.”
When the opening flurry wore off, it was more of the same between the two teams. Chances were few and far between, with most of the play happening at midfield, and the Orediggers tried to play long balls over the FLC back line with little success.
“I thought the guys on the back line were great today,” Oberholtzer said. “They kept their poise under pressure and made good decisions. They’ve been really good for us lately.”
As the seconds ticked off, the stingy Skyhawks defense let time expire without incident. Chadderton made a brilliant save, diving to his right after a rare misplay by a defender, but that was the extent of the pressure Colorado Mines mounted.
In his last regular season game at Dirks Field, Tamino Kroeger led FLC with four shot attempts.
“I’m so happy to be able to send the seniors out with a win,” Onumonu said. “They’ve made this so much fun for me and helped a lot of the guys feel at home when we first got here. We really wanted to win this one for them.”
Fort Lewis will finish the regular season next weekend on the road with a 5 p.m. Friday match at UC-Colorado Springs before an 11 a.m. Sunday meeting at Metro State.
jfries@Durangoherald.com
