Soaked to the bone and stiff after sitting around, the Skyhawks didn’t want to let this one slip away.
After a delay of nearly 1 hour, 5 minutes of play, the ’Hawks found a winner.
The Fort Lewis College men’s soccer team dried out, loosened up, then eked out a 2-1 victory on freshman Tamino Kroger’s goal in the 85th minute after the weather delay Thursday at Dirks Field in FLC’s home opener.
Lightning forced the Skyhawks and Marauders to seek shelter with 10 minutes, 29 seconds remaining in regulation after both teams played through a steady rain in the latter part of the second half. Once the lightning moved out of the area, both teams and the small smattering of die-hard fans still remaining came back on the field, and the Skyhawks (2-0-1) seemed to have a bit more jump.
The pace paid off in the 85th minute. Zac Lawrence beat his defender toward the end line on the left wing and lofted a cross in front of net. In the ensuing scramble, Kroger punched it home for his first goal as a Skyhawk.
“We kept having chances and chances, and we felt it coming,” Lawrence said.
Maintaining focus through the delay was critical. Kroger said the FLC locker room was calm and quiet throughout despite not knowing when, or even if, the game would resume.
“The whole locker room was quiet. Everybody was concentrated on the game, even with the – I don’t know how many minutes it was – an hour,” Kroger said.
Under sunnier skies, FLC got off to a strong start, holding possession for several stretches early in the first half. But it wasn’t until the final 15 seconds of the first half that the Skyhawks broke through.
Minutes earlier, the Skyhawks missed an odd-angle free kick from about 6 yards out after a pass from a Marauders defender was handled illegally by goalkeeper Jack West, who made a save on the free kick attempt.
FLC earned another free kick in the half’s waning moments, and Yannis Becker’s attempt from the right wing appeared to go off of West and landed perfectly in front of Brandon Dooley, who buried his first goal as a Skyhawk to give FLC a 1-0 halftime lead.
It didn’t take long after halftime for the Marauders (0-1-0) to equalize. A long cross from just inside midfield found its way perfectly onto the head of a charging Jonathon Sellars, who made no mistakes in heading it past Ryan Schaul to tie the game at 1 in the 49th minute.
FLC head coach Oige Kennedy, who said he’s looking for a clean sheet sooner than later, said the equalizer was a mental mistake on the Skyhawks’ part.
“I think just a lapse of concentration a little bit,” he said. “We didn’t close the cross down, and the player was free at the back.”
Clean sheet or not, FLC earned a W in its first show at home and without the aid of key cogs Jordan Alexander and Artur Piperkov – the former appeared in the starting lineup but was removed before the game and the latter because of injury. And after battling through a delay, it wasn’t a game FLC was in a mood to drop.
“I was impressed with the attitude (Thursday),” Kennedy said. “It’s just like against St. Edward’s. We didn’t stop; we kept going and going. And I think justified in the result in the end.”
rowens@durangoherald.com
