The men’s soccer team at Fort Lewis College moved into the semifinals of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament thanks to a dominant defensive performance Tuesday afternoon.
The No. 3 Skyhawks (10-5-4, 9-3-2 RMAC) held off a relentless attack from the sixth-seeded Regis Rangers (8-9-0, 6-8-0 RMAC) and kept all 22 of Regis’ shots out of goal on the way to a 3-0 win at Dirks Field in Durango.
“They’re stingy. They don’t give up a whole lot,” FLC head coach David Oberholtzer said of the Skyhawks’ defense. “They throw themselves on the line and get in front of shots. They do whatever they can to help (goalkeeper) Peter (Byrne), and the ones that get through, Peter does a fantastic job to keep them out of the net.”
Byrne finished the day with nine saves in the shutout victory.
The Skyhawks opened up the scoring in the 34th minute. Freshman Ryan Lee gained possession on the left side of the 18-yard box and worked his way toward the center of the field. After a couple touches, Lee fed the ball to Raul Pescador, who took one touch before firing a shot past the Regis keeper for his third goal of the season.
The goal gave FLC some breathing room from the constant attack from the Rangers, who out shot FLC 10-7 in the first half and put six of those shots on goal.
“I thought we created a lot of chances, we just made a lot of mistakes,” Regis coach Tony McCall said. “On the day, they didn’t fall for us. ... It was one of those days.”
The Rangers continued to execute their attack in the second half. They got off 12 shots and were awarded three corner kicks, but the Skyhawks defense kept finding ways to stifle the attack.
“We have a solid back line,” sophomore defender Marshall Metzger said. “All my teammates in front of me, to the side of me, and Peter behind me, it’s just solid. We’re really a family back there – a unit. We’re strong. If one guy makes a mistake another guy covers. We’re a really solid group of guys.”
Fort Lewis added to its lead with two goals in the 82nd minute.
The first goal of the quick scoring spree came when Hakeem Rabiu got behind Regis’ back line and put a shot on goal that Regis keeper Chase Webert knocked away. But the rebound fell to Max Fuentes, who drilled a shot for his second goal in as many matches.
“He’s just becoming relentless on both sides of the ball,” Oberholtzer said of Fuentes. “He’s really buying into the program and what we’re asking of him and really doing a great job.”
Only 47 seconds after Fuentes’ strike, Landon Gibson put the exclamation point on the match with a goal from the left edge of the 18-yard box to push the lead to 3-0. It was his third goal of the season.
The win set up a semifinal match against No. 2 Colorado Mesa (15-2-1, 11-2-1 RMAC) on Friday in Golden. In their lone meeting this season, the Skyhawks and Mustangs drew 1-1 on Sept. 24 at Dirks Field.
Metzger said one thing he thinks he and the rest of the FLC roster need to focus on heading into the match is keeping their emotions in check and not making mental mistakes.
“Sometimes we can kind of play a little frantic and let the emotions of the game get the best of us,” he said. “We can give away silly fouls, like myself, I’ve given away a couple. (We need to) control our emotions, let the game ride out and not get caught up in the emotions of the game.”
The Skyhawks saw six players earn All-RMAC recognition when the conference released its list of season awards.
Sophomore Ty Lang led the way for FLC and was named to the first team as a defender. Lang recorded one goal and four assists this season. He appeared in 16 matches for FLC and logged 1,418 minutes.
Metzger and freshman forward Lee earned second team honors. Metzger was a key fixture in FLC’s defense all season and earned his first goal in the regular season finale against South Dakota Mines. Lee moved in and out of the starting lineup during the season and finished with a team-leading six goals and three assists, which was the second most on the team behind Lang.
Freshman goalkeeper Byrne, freshman midfielder Landon Gibson and junior midfielder Nicolas Perez earned honorable mentions for the Skyhawks.
Byrne was named the RMAC keeper of the week three times this season, the most of any keeper in the RMAC, and finished conference play with 72 saves, which was tied for the most in the conference with Adams State’s Austin Baumeister.
Gibson scored three goals this season, including the game winner against the UC-Colorado Springs on Oct. 1.
Perez did a little bit of everything for the Skyhawks. He logged 1,375 minutes during the season and had the game winning goal against Colorado Christian on Oct. 8.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
