In the last two meetings between Fort Lewis College and Colorado Mines’ men’s soccer teams, 220 minutes of soccer was played, two draws were the result and each team could come up with only one goal.
Friday in Golden, in the third meeting of the season, it was a much different story.
The teams threw caution to the wind in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament semifinal. The hectic style of play suited the No. 8 Orediggers, as they came away with a 6-2 victory and put an end to Fort Lewis’ season.
Tamino Kroeger and Zac Lawrence scored the goals for Fort Lewis (12-6-2). RMAC Player of the Year Nikolaus Grotz led the way for Colorado Mines (15-0-2) with three goals in the semifinal win for the home team.
“Congratulations to Colorado Mines. They were by far the better team (Friday) and the best team all season in the conference,” Fort Lewis head coach Oige Kennedy said in a postgame news conference. “We played them tightly in the first two games, but we weren’t up to the same level. It is disappointing because it wasn’t the best representation of ourselves.”
After two full matches and two overtimes against each other, the two teams had a pretty good idea of what to expect. It took a short while for the teams to loosen up Friday, but when Grotz tallied his first goal in the 24th minute, the floodgates opened.
In the next 13 minutes, the offenses exploded for six goals. Five of the goals came in a six-minute span.
Grotz’s goal off the post gave the Orediggers a 1-0 lead. Less than a minute later, Lawrence tied the match with a penalty kick goal he put past RMAC Goalkeeper of the Year Collin Hall. In the next minute, the Orediggers reclaimed the lead when Ryan Blarr beat Fort Lewis goalkeeper Elliot Chadderton to his right. Not to be outdone, Kroeger netted his 10th goal of the season on a shot from 20 yards out to close the gap to 3-2.
With seven minutes remaining in the half, Joe Haines extended the Colorado Mines lead to 4-2.
“I think the biggest thing was that we let up the first goal,” said Fort Lewis freshman defender Sean Cleary. “It’s always tough getting out of that hole and it felt like we were trying to get back in it the whole game.”
Two early second half goals from Grotz capped off the hat trick, put the match away and ended what became a frustrating last few weeks of the season for the Skyhawks.
Kroeger and Yannis Becker combined for 10 of the Skyhawks’ 14 shots. Chadderton made six saves in the loss. Colorado Mines outshot Fort Lewis 21-14, and the Orediggers attempted nine corner kicks to FLC’s three.
“We’ve got a young group,” Kennedy said. “I think the biggest lesson for us is that we have to win our home games. If we could have won more home games, we could have avoided the Wednesday game and had fresher legs. I think that played a role in (the) game.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
