For the second consecutive game, both Fort Lewis College soccer programs fell on the road in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play.
The Skyhawks men’s soccer team (5-2-2, 3-2-1 RMAC) dropped a road match against Westminster 1-0 Sunday afternoon in Salt Lake City.
Westminster (8-1-1, 4-1-1 RMAC) took the lead in the 65th minute when the Skyhawks defense failed to clear a ball deep in their half of the field. It fell right to Griffins midfielder Erik Hulbert, who found fellow midfielder Alec Marshall, who in turn scored on an open goal after FLC goalkeeper Victor Salcido attempted to save Hulbert’s cross.
The first half ended scoreless as the Griffins had a 9-4 edge on shots.
After the Skyhawks conceded, they were able to get back into the match with five more shots in the second half. In the final minute, the Skyhawks had a golden opportunity to level the score off of a corner kick, but Hakeem Rabiu’s shot was saved by Westminster goalkeeper Will Desantis.
Head coach David Oberholtzer thought that his team played better today than Friday, but acknowledged they had hit a rough patch.
“I thought it was pretty even and tightly contested,” Oberholtzer said. “It was one of those games where the first team to make a mistake or first team to have a bit of quality was gonna get something. We made a mistake and they capitalized on it.”
“Friday’s game was disappointing just because we didn’t really play well,” Oberholtzer continued. “I thought today we played better and the guys fought. Like I said, it was a pretty even game, but it just came down to one mistake. Obviously, we haven’t created as many chances this weekend, in general, as we have the rest of the season. But that’s the way it goes sometimes. We’ve hit a bit of a rough patch and we have to battle through it. We’ll do just that; we’ll get through it.”
It was the second consecutive loss for Fort Lewis after dropping Friday’s contest against Dixie State 4-1.
Fort Lewis will return to action at 3:30 p.m. Friday against Regis at Dirks Field.
The Skyhawks women’s soccer team was also blanked, falling to Colorado Christian 1-0 Sunday in Lakewood.
The game’s only goal came in the 19th minute when Celeste Ruelas received a thrown-in from Karli Wilson just outside of the 18-yard box and lobbed it over Kaylee Mickens.
The second half did not fare much better for the Skyhawks (4-4-1, 3-2-0 RMAC) as they mustered two shots in the half and had one on goal. With 10 minutes remaining, senior captain Renee Terrell had a shot that was saved by Colorado Christian (4-4-2, 3-3 RMAC) goalkeeper Ireland VanDyke. After pressing forward for the final push, Fort Lewis failed to register any real chance and the game ended 1-0.
Head coach Damian Clarke credited Colorado Christian’s ability in the midfield as the difference.
“I think (Colorado) Christian did a great job of turning the match into a physical affair and we didn’t match that until the second half,” Clarke said. “That was the best Colorado Christian team we’ve played. They had good movement in the center of the field. We didn’t play as good as we can, but we also didn’t play so bad that we gave the game away, we just got beat.
Clarke said that the Skyhawks have to find ways to score besides set pieces.
“Most of our goals have come from set pieces,” Clarke said. “We created four corner kicks in the first half and looked dangerous, but we just couldn’t match it in the second half.”
The Skyhawks will square off at 1 p.m. Friday against University of Colorado-Colorado Springs at Dirks Field.
bploen@durangoherald.com
