Fort Lewis men’s soccer cruised past Colorado School of Mines 5-2 on Friday night at Dirks Field. The win puts the squad’s overall record at 9-3-2 and the Skyhawks are in first place in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with a 5-1-1 record. CSM fell to 4-5-5 overall and 3-3-1 in RMAC play.
“The energy from the group from the start was really good,” Fort Lewis head coach David Oberholtzer said. We were able to exploit some things pretty early on and to be able to just be efficient in front of goal early on. To get two goals in the first five minutes, it really takes a lot of pressure off our group.”
Senior midfielder Loic-Jean Baptiste opened up the scoring one minute and 24 seconds into the game with an assist by Hjalmarsson. The Skyhawks struck oil quickly again with Hjalmarsson this time scoring 3:40 into the game, assisted by Baptiste.
Fort Lewis took a 2-0 lead into the break, but its shutout was stopped when Quin Collins scored in the 58th minute to put CSM on the board.
The Skyhawks and Hjalmarsson quickly responded. The freshman forward drew numerous defenders and passed it to junior forward Gabriel Legendre for an easy finish in the 61st minute. Hjalmarsson then took it himself and put a ball in the left side of the net in the 69th minute to make the score 4-1.
“It’s just more of the same from what he's been doing all season,” Oberholtzer said about Hjalmarsson. “Mines kept a high back line so there was a lot of space in behind. Anton was able to get in behind quite a few times and just be dangerous constantly.”
Senior forward Matt Baldridge scored the Skyhawks’ fifth goal in the 81st minute before CSM’s Chris Seery scored in the 82nd minute.
Women’s soccer:
The Skyhawks women’s soccer team has found their offense, beating Black Hills 3-0 on the road on Friday afternoon. Fort Lewis improved to 7-2-5 overall and 3-2-3 in RMAC play. Black Hills fell to 3-9-2 and 1-6-2 in RMAC play.
Three different Fort Lewis players scored goals for the Skyhawks, showing once again the team’s balanced offensive attack.
Sophomore Roslin Gomez opened up the attack with goal in the 14th minute of the first half. Sophomore Josie Coulter followed that up with another goal in the 33rd minute to take a 2-0 lead into halftime.
Senior defender Elizabeth David put the final goal in the back of the net for Fort Lewis in the 74th minute.
“It's been a pretty collective effort the entire season and its stayed that way,” Fort Lewis head coach Damian Clarke said. “We've focused on restarts and we've been pretty effective on a lot of restarts.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
