Soccer can be a beautifully cruel game. That was the case Thursday afternoon at Dirks Field when Colorado State University-Pueblo defeated the Fort Lewis College women’s soccer team 1-0 to mathematically eliminate the Skyhawks from Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament contention.
It is the first time Fort Lewis failed to qualify under head coach Damian Clarke, who is in his second stint as FLC’s coach and first time since the 2001 season.
“The girls played as good a game as they’ve played all year long,” Clarke said. “In all reality, it’s tough sometimes to stay composed in front of goal when you haven’t been there a lot. I think we worked really, really hard to get to this point to play against a team that good, and get in front of goal and create opportunities. We just haven’t had a whole lot of practice in that situation. But, we’re proud of the heart from the kids today, and we got a lot better this season.”
The Skyhawks (5-9-2, 4-7-1 RMAC) had a golden opportunity to take the lead in the 48th minute when a penalty kick was given to FLC. However, junior midfielder Britney Johnson’s shot was saved by ThunderWolves’ goalkeeper Rylie Martin, as she stuck her right leg out and stopped the shot. Just two minutes later, on the ensuing counterattack, freshman midfielder Porsche Nieto had a shot that hit the crossbar, but senior forward Laikyn Koss was there to clean up the rebound, as she slotted it into the bottom left corner of the net to give the ThunderWolves a 1-0 lead.
Fort Lewis kept applying pressure late, as they had set piece opportunities, but every one fizzled out. Junior midfielder Emma Patron, who already hit the crossbar in the first half, almost found the equalizer with 50 seconds remaining, as she was open off of a free kick, but her header went just wide of the post.
CSU-Pueblo (8-5-3, 5-5-2 RMAC) head coach Sierra Cardenas thought her team did just enough to keep their momentum going heading into the final game of the season on Saturday.
“We’ve talked a lot about that desire that no one else can give you but yourself, and were able to find a way, and while it wasn’t pretty, we got a win and I’m proud of their fight today,” Cardenas said.
Clarke said that despite the tough way to go out, he is confident the Skyhawks will rebound next season.
“How else can you take the loss?” Clarke said. “Other than the fact that you’ve got to deal with the failure of not accomplishing something that you felt you could do, and learn from it. This team will come out Saturday to win and they’re not done; they’re not done after Saturday, and we’ll keep getting better this spring, and this will be a completely different animal come next August.”
Fort Lewis will end its season Saturday against New Mexico Highlands at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at Dirks Field.
Senior captain Coleman Kane said if there was ever a time for the Fort Lewis College men’s soccer team to defeat conference rival Colorado Mesa for the first time since 2012, it would be Thursday.
“We know how much is at stake. We’ve seen the table and we’ve done the math, but we always are fired up when we play Mesa,” Kane said on Monday. “I mean, I really think we’ll get it done because we’ve got nothing left to lose. So if there’s any time to beat them for the first time in a while, it’s going to be now, with our postseason on the line.”
He was right. However, it was one evening too late.
Junior defender Marshall Metzger headed home the game-winning goal in the 118th minute of extra time Thursday night in Grand Junction for the Skyhawks to stun the No. 23 Mavericks 1-0. Colorado Mesa (10-2-4, 8-2-3 RMAC) dropped to fourth place in the conference with the loss.
Even with the win, for the first time in program history, the Skyhawks will not be attending the RMAC Tournament, which they have made every year since joining the conference in 1996.
The Skyhawks (8-6-2, 6-6-1 RMAC) had to pull off the great escape and had to win their final two matches after they were five points adrift coming into the match. Even with a win on Saturday against CSU-Pueblo, they would still come up one point short after Metropolitan State University-Denver thumped Colorado Christian 7-0 earlier in the afternoon to seal FLC’s fate.
Head coach David Oberholtzer, who played for the Skyhawks in 2006-’07, was disappointed to see the 22-year-old streak come to an end despite a thrilling win.
“Obviously, it was bittersweet,” Oberholtzer said. “I definitely think we were a good enough team to be a postseason team. We’ve consistently played pretty well all year, but things just didn’t go our way. Again, bittersweet and emotional for the guys, but it was great for them to find a way to win and feel good for the game on Saturday. We were able to send a message to the rest of the conference to let them know how good we really are. Hopefully, we’ll see those things on Saturday.”
The Skyhawks will end their season Saturday against CSU-Pueblo at 11 a.m. in Pueblo.
bploen@durangoherald.com
