With the anticipation over, Bayfield High School head coach Jen Zelinski can rest knowing that her team’s season will continue when the Class 3A Colorado High School Activities Association state soccer tournament was announced Sunday afternoon.
Bayfield (11-2-2, 9-1-2 3A Region 5 League) received the No. 23 seed in the tournament and will meet the No. 10 Peak to Peak Pumas (9-5-1, 5-4 3A Region 6 League) in Quandrant 4.
“Personally, it if feels good, the girls are excited,” said Zelinski in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “Now we have to go to work this week and get ready to play.”
The Class 3A CHSAA tournament committee selected the top 24 teams at the 3A level, which created plenty of suspense during the selection process for Bayfield. Despite the fact that Bayfield won 11 regular season games, CHSAA only selected two teams from Bayfield’s league with Pagosa Springs (10-4-1, 10-2 3A Region 5 League) being the other at the 22nd seed.
Against Peak to Peak, Bayfield will play a team that averages three goals per game. Freshman Lindsay Hudson is the Pumas’ leading scorer with eight goals this season. One knock against Peak to Peak would be its young roster–the Pumas have only four seniors on a 25-person varsity and junior varsity roster.
“We’re going to take them like any team,” said Zelinski. “We’ll focus on our game because that’s what we can control. I’ll look at stats for my knowledge, but I want us to play the way we play and not focus on how to defend them.”
Bayfield will need to rely on its senior leadership, primarily Maddy Duran who is responsible for much of the team’s offensive production with 18 goals scored on 114 shots. Where the Wolverines will excel at is their depth with 10 upperclassman. Bayfield has the offensive prowess–4.1 goals scored per game–and defensive versatility to give the Pumas a headache.
Bayfield has three players that it can play at the net with Makenna Cowan and Kailee Millard getting the primary minutes at goalkeeper.
“We need our goalies to work hard this week,” said Zelinski. “I’m sure (Peak to Peak) will have fast players. We’ll work on improving our game in the next four days.”
Bayfield’s x-factor is sophomore striker Savannah Kaufmann who began the year at net, but was converted to offense and ended up tying Duran with 18 goals.
There are slight similarities between Bayfield and Peak to Peak. Both teams start each game quickly with Bayfield scoring 2.4 of its goals before halftime with Peak to Peak scores 1.9 goals in that same time period. After halftime, however, both teams have trouble finding the net. Bayfield dips down to 1.6 goals and Peak to Peak drops to one goal in the second half.
Bayfield’s lack of competition might give the Wolverines issues. In the Wolverines’ last five games of the season, Bayfield outscored its opponents 29-2 while posting a 4-0-1 record. That’s a great record to end the season, but none of those teams made the 3A tournament.
The Pumas, on the other hand, survived a league that sent eight teams to the postseason.
The winner of the opening game will meet No. 7 Fountain Valley (11-2, 4-0 3A Region 1 League) in the second round. Bayfield and Peak to Peak will square off at Fountain Valley on Friday with the kickoff time to be determined.
jmentzer@durangoherald.com
