Players were joking about the possibility of "playing in snow boots" before kickoff. It's a good thing Makenna Cowan's cleats provided more proper traction underneath her when she planted her left foot to attempt the most crucial of Bayfield's eight corner kicks in last Saturday's winter-whipped Wolverine Country Stadium match with Ridgway.
"I hadn't really practiced any corner kicks before that," said the junior, tabbed for the task due to injury and subsequent repositioning of personnel. "Just.kind of.turned my hips to where I thought it needed to go, which was between the penalty-kick spot and the upper 'six.' And so I just turned my hips there and hoped for the best!"
But in the 23rd minute, Cowan-who counts former Wolverine Jessica Vasquez (now Bagley) as an aunt by marriage-appeared a seasoned pro at the part. So did senior Maddy Duran, who flawlessly headed the service over Demon goalie Samantha Medina and put the home side on course to claim a needed 3A/2A Southwestern League victory after Telluride somehow slipped out of town with a tie the afternoon before.
"It's really hard to come out and think you're dominating a game, and not get any points on the board," sophomore Savannah Kaufmann said, comparing BHS' two-goal first half versus RHS with a zero-goal-but thoroughly dominated-first half versus THS. "But we didn't give up; we were connecting passes the whole time, and we kept shooting. That was the plan and even though we had a lot of chances I knew we were going to finish strong, no matter what the score was." Duran converted a Taylor Morris pass in the 27th, scoring the Wolverines' second goal of the day against Ridgway.
"I would say our team did great on both sides," Cowan said. "Today was a little rough with the weather, but.we just pushed through-mind over matter!-and just played, did our best that we could at both games."
And perhaps the sudden snow blanketing the pitch knocked just enough of an edge off, slowed the pace down just enough, or curbed just enough enthusiasm to allow Bayfield to better compose each opportunity. To be fair, however, opportunities against the Miners were much more numerous and usually too good to be true.
Unfortunately, one usually knows what that means..
Tied 0-0 at intermission but already with a key advantage in that Telluride standout Kenzie Zaumseil was lost in the 25th minute after re-wracking an ankle, BHS nearly struck early in the second half, but senior Lexa Fleming missed an empty-net try in the 42nd. THS then capitalized in the 55th when freshman Justus Tudor cashed in a teammate's shot that slipped the grip of keeper Kailee Millard.
More than eager to equalize, Kaufmann then bounced a shot off Whitney Wells' far post in the 62nd after drawing her out and easily evading her, and senior Brianna Martinez's follow-up on the rebound somehow stayed to the outside of the unguarded frame.
Wells then restarted play and after the guests managed to move the ball deep into BHS' defensive third, a takeaway and long Duran boot through midfield led to a rapid counterstrike in the 63rd which saw Kaufmann again one-v-one with Wells. Again looking to Wells' left, Kaufmann managed to get a more controlled roller of a shot away only to see Wells better control her own approach and make a sliding stop.
Duran then narrowly missed a chance wide in the 66th before Kaufmann, fittingly, took a Morris feed and dribbled around THS' Mackenzie Hild to then shoot past Wells and tie the score in the 74th minute.
"An incredible feeling," she said. "I had a perfect assist from Taylor and everyone.we were all working it up the field just to get that one in the goal, and it was just perfect. It was good timing too."
Partially because Tudor didn't miss by much on her 79th-minute bid for a goal similar to her first, and mostly because BHS found the momentum to save-at the worst-a 1-1 draw after two ten-minute overtimes. Duran put a wind-aided 40-yarder just a few feet wide of the net in the 93rd, but Millard snared Miner Taylor Gumble's 25-yarder in the 96th, and secured the tie by smothering Tudor's last intrusion in the 102nd as stoppage time was close to expiring.
Ridgway's Emma Haaland managed to knock in a deflected Elle Martin shot in the 52nd minute of the next day's action, halving BHS' 2-nil lead, but the Wolverines had done too much work to again be denied victory.
Millard, who'd made a media-counted seven total saves against Telluride (4-1-1, 3-0-1 SWL), came up with four against RHS (3-2-1, 2-2-1). Wells was forced to make 16 as Bayfield took 25 shots and put 15 on net, while Medina made five stops as BHS' numbers dipped to 16 and six, respectively.
"We're all starting to figure out where we need to be, and we're actually starting to talk a lot more which is very helpful on the field," said Cowan. "And I think we're just becoming more of a team, bonding more, and just being the best team that we can be."
Standing 4-1-1 overall, 3-0-1 in league entering Spring Break, BHS resumes play April 5 at Alamosa, then travels to Gunnison for a non-league, neutral-site rematch with Crested Butte on the 8th.
"We've got some injured players, we've got some tired players, but this is the perfect time to get back and recover," said Kaufmann, battling a groin pull herself. "We're going to be even stronger next time out for sure."
