The men’s soccer team at Fort Lewis College is looking to make a run at the upcoming Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament next week and picked up a key 3 points with a 2-1 win during a physical match against Adams State University on Wednesday at Dirks Field.
The Skyhawks sit in third place in the RMAC standings with an 8-3-2 record in conference play. They are 2 points back of Colorado Mesa University, which is second in the standings at 9-2-1 and 2 points ahead of Metro State University-Denver in fourth at 8-4-0. Colorado School of Mines holds the top spot with a conference record of 11-1-0. Mesa, Metro and Mines all have two matches left in the regular season while FLC has one match remaining.
The win against the Grizzlies avenged one of the Skyhawks’ losses from earlier this season, but there was some cause for concern in the victory.
FLC (8-5-4 overall) put pressure on Adams (7-9-1, 4-8-1 RMAC) with a good counter attack throughout the first half and the early part of the second half, but the Skyhawks lost some of their intensity and failed to communicate during the final 30 minutes, which opened up opportunities for the Grizzlies.
“To be honest, it was good we got the two goals and it was good we got the win, but overall I think it was a pretty uninspiring performance,” FLC head coach David Oberholtzer said. “The guys have a top end that is championship ready, but we’re just not showing it every time out. When you’re inconsistent that way you’re not going to be able to win a championship. We’ve got to be more consistent across the board and there were a lot of little details we were missing today.”
The Skyhawks took a 1-0 lead in the 27th minute.
After FLC was awarded a free kick, Max Fuentes Carrera, a freshman from Monterrey, Mexico, played the ball in front of the net to fellow freshman Jean-Philippe Meibohm, a native of Harsefeld, German, for the goal.
The match remained at 1-0 until the opening minutes of the second half when FLC’s Nicolas Perez made it 2-0.
A little more than a minute into the second half, Perez, a junior by way of Quito, Ecuador, received the ball after a shot was deflected out of the box and fired a shot on first touch out of the air from 35 yards out, which hit the cross bar and deflected into goal.
“It was a tremendous strike, and it’s not a fluke. (Perez) does stuff like that all the time in training throughout the week,” Oberholtzer said.
The energy Perez’s goal provided wore off about 10 minutes into the second half, and the Grizzlies seized their opportunity.
Adams State began putting pressure on the FLC defense and made it a 2-1 game in the 68th minute when a free kick bounced to Marcus Wilson, who slipped his shot into the back of the net.
Adams State, led by its seniors, continued to put pressure on the Skyhawks but couldn’t find the equalizer.
“We have a big senior group with 10 seniors, and some of them have been here for two years, some have been here for four, so making the post season this year would mean a lot to them,” Adams State head coach Brett Bentley said. “I know the boys are hurting because we needed to tie; we needed at least a point to keep our playoff hopes alive, but credit to (FLC). When you come here it’s always a darn tough place to play. They’re always good and even more so they’re always good at home.”
During the match, frustrations on both sides began to mount as the result of the physical play. On multiple occasions, both Adams State and Fort Lewis players were taken down, and each time nothing but a warning came from the referee.
“The officiating has been so hit or miss this year,” Bentley said. “It’s tough because today the ref was letting everything go, and just a couple of matches ago everything was a foul. I think it’s really difficult for the teams in our conference when you’re dealing with that big of a difference. We always tell our guys they can’t get wrapped up in officiating because otherwise we take ourselves out of the game, and I think we did that. I think we lost our heads a couple of times today for not getting calls, and that kind of stuff is a waste of your time.”
The Skyhawks will close out the regular season on Friday with a trip to Rapid City, South Dakota, to face South Dakota Mines (3-10-2, 2-10-0 RMAC) before they turn their attention to the conference tournament, which begins Nov. 1.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
