Actively pondering a post-Pagosa Springs future in the armed forces, besieged Pirates goalkeeper Trista Tully came under fire from all angles Tuesday night in Bayfield and nevertheless defended her position as though ordered not, at any cost, to lose the ground.
Or her team’s increasingly-threatened one-goal advantage.
“One goal can win a game,” grinned longtime PSHS head coach Lindsey Kurt-Mason, alluding to not only the eventual final score inside an electric Wolverine Country Stadium, but also the margin in a season-opening overtime loss to Alamosa. “But there was some close ones on both sides, so you never know. From one minute to another, I didn’t know.
“Bayfield, they played until the end of the game and were coming at us with all guns.”
With an appreciative crowd roaring, Tully incredibly denied emerging BHS prospect Preslie Wagner on back-to-back attempts, then stopped Madi McInroy’s follow-up of Wagner’s kick-saved second shot to cap a 77th-minute sequence all but securing the visitors a 3A Southwestern League victory.
As impressive as that was, nothing topped Tully’s apparent bid in the 63rd for save of the year, an agile effort fans and personnel of both sides were still talking about, in positive context pertaining to upcoming contests, long after the final whistle.
Playing as though already a new cornerstone for a crew having officially graduated eight seniors just two days before, Wagner ran onto a perfectly-placed pass through midfield and found herself sprinting forward some 25 yards with only Tully between her and the net.
“Preslie, she’s only a freshman,” Bayfield head coach Chris Zoltowski noted. “She’s intense, she’s passionate about the sport, works hard at every training session. I’m really excited to see her the next few years.”
Coming off her line, the junior Tully knew a bullet was imminent, and with no time for bonus preparation went airborne to her left, parallel to the pitch with arms and hands fully extended, meeting the hard-struck shot just a few feet off Wagner’s foot and deflecting it away.
“It was just instinct,” said Tully. “Like, nothing much went through my mind; it’s just instinct to dive.
“She had a few shots on goal, she’s a very strong striker,” Wolverine Cayanne Carlson said. “At that point, I just thought Preslie was going to have that goal.”
Wagner, however, alertly redirected her rush to the unclaimed rebound, setting up a near-post try Tully backtracked just in time to watch zip into the strings outside of the frame.
“I’m so impressed. Each and every game I watch, each and every practice I watch, she wants to work hard. You saw that out there tonight,” said Kurt-Mason. “Distributed well, she’s communicating well – who wouldn’t want her on their team?”
“Hats off to that keeper, I mean she’s amazing,” Zoltowski declared. “The shot count was huge. We really would have liked to get one of them in, but she was a wall.”
To be fair, so was Bayfield backstop Jaden Cooper, finding her form with the delayed spring 2021 season at last and only a couple weeks in bloom. While Tully unofficially totaled 17 saves, Cooper booked 10 against Pirate weapons Nicole Bartz, Samaya Dunn de Pulido, Lauren Monterroso – who completed a 25th-minute two-on-one charge converting a Dunn de Pulido pass into a goal to Cooper’s right – and others.
“Coop is no joke,” said Zoltowski. “She’s a good commander, not afraid. We’re really lucky to have her on this team.”
Having taken their lumps in early-season losses at Durango and at home to non-league Salida, Bayfield put forth a performance defeat and overcast skies couldn’t overshadow. One which the Wolverines themselves will expect to replicate from here on out as their new baseline for success.
“We were moving the ball super well,” said Carlson. “As the game kept going, we were realizing we had drops to pass to, we had people to push the ball up to, we were moving the ball. In the second half, we started to get a little tired; that caused us to slow down a little bit.
“Honestly, we could have won. It’s just, we need a little extra practice just to get used to each other’s playing and to understand where the ball’s supposed to be at the right times. It just takes that team effort and power under foot to get the ball into the goal.”
“I thought we did really good,” sideline-to-sideline defender Madison Wells said. “We hustled together when we pushed up the field, when we needed to get back on defense, and we all got back on defense. Jaden did really good, had a lot of saves.”
Zoltowski said he has been proud to see his team grow and is eager to see the Wolverines take to the road at 4 p.m. June 1 at Alamosa.
The Pirates (1-1, 1-1), meanwhile, will next see action much sooner; Pagosa Springs will host Durango at 4 p.m. Tuesday before pausing prior to visiting Alamosa for a 4 p.m. kickoff June 3. Bayfield’s visit to PSHS’ Golden Peaks Stadium is set for 4 p.m. June 8.
“I’m sure we’ll meet them again, and it’ll be pretty much the same kind of game, real scrappy,” Kurt-Mason said. “There’s a lot of heart on both teams out there; it’s good to see that.”
GREAT JOB, GRADS: At halftime of the match, Bayfield saluted its since-graduated seniors, still with much soccer to play in Wolverine togs. Honored were Cooper, Wells, Carlson, McInroy, Olivia Larson, Gabriela ‘Gabby’ Cuellar and one Halle Loveday, who’d given the salutatorian’s address at Commencement. (Aubree Farmer was inactive for the match.)
Still healing from ACL surgery during fall 2020, a uniformed Loveday was inserted to take the second-half kickoff as part of a pre-arranged moment with which both Zoltowski and Kurt-Mason were completely cool.
“I was really happy that she got to come out on the field,” said Wells. “I mean, it’s sad that she didn’t get to play because of her injury, but she definitely is missed on the team.”
“We wanted to take that moment to honor her,” Zoltowski said, “and the way she’s been a part of this team; even with the injury she’s still here at every practice and everything. It’s nice having her on the sidelines; I actually told her maybe one day she’s going to be a great coach.”
“It was both heartbreaking and very special,” the Michigan State University-bound Loveday, normally one of the SWL’s top talents, said of her inspiring cameo. “Taking the kickoff, I really hope, isn’t my last time on this field.”
