MESA COUNTY – Losing by one goal the previous afternoon wasn’t how head coach Cody Kiss and the Bayfield Wolverines boys soccer program envisioned beginning a two-match road trip. How the next morning’s test began, however, was a practical extension of how the outcome at Basalt was ultimately decided, with the Wolverines operating as well as expected.
Despite the strong finish against Basalt and strong start against Grand Junction Central, Bayfied dropped both games. The Wolverines lost at Basalt, 1-0, on Friday and lost, 3-1, at Grand Junction Central on Saturday. Bayfield dropped to 1-2 overall after the losses.
“The result (Basalt) obviously wasn’t ideal but … down 1-0, we had our best period of play that last 20 minutes where, generally, it gets frantic and chaotic,” Kiss said on Saturday following a spirited, and often heated, showdown with Grand Junction Central. “We were composed, moving the ball the best we did. I got to watch the game over again last night and … that was the best we’ve moved the ball. I left the game happy with how we played.”
Effectively picking up where they’d left off against the 3A Longhorns (1-2, 0-0 3A Western Slope), the Wolverines brought the action right to the 4A Warriors and, in the fifth minute at Long Family Memorial Park, went up 1-0 with Ayden Casillas kicking in a gift delivered almost directly to him when fellow senior Riley Hanson plowed Central sophomore Angel Acevedo off the ball and simultaneously managed to nudge it Casillas’ way.
BHS nearly doubled the deficit facing CHS in the 18th, but Warrior keeper Bryan Esqueda was ruled not to have stumbled over his own goal line after catching Bayfield sophomore Colton Casillas’ well-bent corner kick approaching from Esqueda’s left.
Defeated in their season-opener earlier in the week by rival Grand Junction, Central finally began cranking up the pressure on Bayfield goalie Orion Botsford and ultimately equalized not long before halftime.
In the 24th minute, sophomore Yiovanni Galindo zipped a low shot into the side netting; far-off fans seated at the opposite end of the ground thought it had beaten Botsford at his near post. Junior Adan Mendoza then forced Botsford to make a high-grade save in the 25th, and freshman Jose Zamora shot just over Botsford’s crossbar in the 32nd.
But in the 37th minute, the Warriors broke through and tied the score on junior Christian Haynes’ finish assisted by sophomore Joseph Garcia Blanco. After BHS’ Brayden Hoffman was shaken up in the 39th and had to come off the pitch, Central very nearly gained the lead during the first stoppage-time minute, but sophomore Eduardo Munoz Moreno’s low shot at Botsford’s near post clanged off the framework and out of bounds.
Garcia Blanco earned CHS the upper hand not long after intermission, driving past Bayfield’s Cade Crotty to score unassisted in the 46th minute and senior Diego Fuentes then converted a 52nd-minute penalty kick – awarded after Crotty tackled a Warrior from behind deep inside BHS’ 18-yard box – for what ended up being the contest’s final goal and it sealed a 3-1 victory.
“We graduated 12 seniors last year, so we’re a little younger,” said Central head coach Joe Diedrich. “We’ve got to learn and grow and hopefully we can just get better. This was a hard-fought battle; Bayfield, we always play them tough. It’s always a close game and we knew that coming in.”
The mutual intensity began boiling over somewhat; not long after Fuentes’ PK, Warrior freshman Jose Zamora essentially put a studs-up, midair bodycheck on Crotty in probable retaliation for Crotty’s illegal tackle, and was shown a yellow card. Bayfield sophomore Nikko Cundiff was red-carded and sent off in the 58th minute, and Hoffman received a yellow in the 75th for physically venting out some frustration upon a Central player while battling for the ball.
“The I-70 corridor is a whole new level,” Kiss said. “So, it was good to come out, see the competition … deal with the physicality – something we haven’t really done yet. I’d say we definitely had some heavy legs from our tough game yesterday, but there was plenty of positives to take from this whole trip.”
Bayfield will play Thursday at Kirtland Central, and on Saturday at Farmington. Kickoff time against the Broncos is set for 6 p.m. and BHS will start against the Scorpions at 11 a.m.
