If someone looked at Fort Lewis men’s soccer record this season, it wouldn’t tell the whole story. The Skyhawks have struggled with injuries, which have stopped FLC from playing at its potential for most of the season. FLC has such a high floor due to its depth that the missing players could be forgotten at times.
Now almost fully healthy, the Skyhawks showed their potential on Wednesday night against Regis in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference tournament semifinals. FLC blitzed the Rangers with three goals in the first 27 minutes of the game. The Skyhawks scored with combination play, one-on-one finishing and a long ball. Regis had no answer and FLC cruised to a 3-0 victory.
Second-seed FLC improved to 12-2-6 overall with the win, while No. 3 Regis finished its season 7-3-9 overall.
“I couldn't be happier,” FLC men’s soccer coach David Oberholtzer said. “We were great from a mentality standpoint. We had a ton of quality on the night. The guys fought for 90 minutes and especially with kind of the weird delay that we had with, with the power going out, that can be a tough one if you're not really mentally resilient. But we came back out and got right back to where we had left off.”
Sophomore Anton Hjalmarsson showed what a difference-maker he can be when he’s out on the pitch. He’s battled foot and hamstring issues the whole year so Wednesday night’s game was only his eighth of the season.
Hjalmarsson picked up where he left off earlier in the season and scored FLC’s first two goals. Senior defender Luke Pope had an assist. Fifth-year forward Gabriel Legendre had a goal that was assisted by redshirt junior Quinn Bosanko.
FLC outshot Regis 16-14, including an 8-4 advantage with shots on goal. Skyhawks sophomore goalkeeper Lucas Martin had four saves.
The Skyhawks attacked in transition well early in the first half to create some quality chances. The Skyhawks had a throw-in in their own half. Senior forward Tomas Duenes switched the field beautifully and found Pope on the right side all alone. He played it up to Citron who left it for Pope on the end line. Pope played the ball on the ground across the goal to Hjalmarsson who tapped it home in front of the goal for the score. The Skyhawks led 1-0 12 minutes into the game.
A power outage on the field almost immediately after Hjalmarsson’s goal paused the game for 45 minutes. When play restarted, Hjalmarsson had another transition chance shortly after but couldn’t finish.
Regis had a few chances thanks to long balls and corner kicks in the first 25 minutes but the chances either missed the net or never challenged Martin.
The Skyhawks intercepted a sloppy pass in the middle third of the field and quickly went to work. Duenes found Hjalmarsson open in the middle of the field just outside the attacking third. He attacked to the left, hit a shot with his left foot from about 20 yards out that found the lower right corner of the net for a 2-0 lead in the 25th minute.
“I'm just really happy for him,” Oberholtzer said about Hjalmarsson. “He still had a lot of concerns and a little bit of worry about getting reinjured. To see him on the field and doing what he does so well, feeling good, that's just exciting for him, for sure.”
Shortly after, FLC struck again. Pope was taken down on the right side around midfield which resulted in a free kick. Bosanko played an absolutely gorgeous ball across the field that traveled around 55 yards in the air over Regis’ right back to Legendre in stride. He chipped it over the Regis keeper and headed it into the net. FLC led 3-0 in the 27th minute.
FLC continued to be aggressive in the second half but couldn’t find any goals. Oberholtzer said the team’s mindset never changed because they knew another goal could be critical whether it was a goal for FLC to make it 4-0 or a goal by Regis to make it 3-1.
The Skyhawks will advance to the tournament championship game at No. 1 seed CSU Pueblo on Saturday at 7 p.m. The ThunderWolves and the Skyhawks met in last year’s championship game in Durango and CSU Pueblo came out on top 2-0.
This year, FLC and CSU Pueblo tied 2-2 at FLC on Sept. 26 and FLC won 1-0 at CSU Pueblo on Oct. 20.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
