After thundering on visiting Alamosa’s net throughout much of the first half Friday afternoon’s rain-wrapped home match, lightning at last struck in Bayfield’s favor shortly before intermission.
Mean Moose goalkeeper Todd Broyles had been very much up to the task before Wolverine junior Ayden Casillas’ 35th-minute corner kick, having tipped Casillas’ 30-yard free kick over the crossbar in the 17th, then having stopped junior Cade Crotty’s amazing 70-yard free kick into Broyles’ 6-yard box in the 23rd. Broyles then denied junior Wyatt Larson’s hard and low try in the 27th plus Casillas’ 20-yard free kick in the 33rd.
But when Casillas curved the aforementioned corner perfectly into traffic Broyles was left with zero chance to deny BHS junior Kyle Russell, who out-leapt AHS junior Juan Gonzalez-Ramirez and headed the ball at full speed directly past Broyles’ right arm for a spectacular ice-breaking strike putting the Wolverines up 1-0 at halftime.
Bayfield scored two more in the second half for a 3-1 victory to improve to 7-6-1 overall and 3-2 in the 3A Intermountain League. Alamosa fell to 2-7-3 overall and 1-2-2 in the 3A Intermountain League.
Actual lightning struck … somewhere close enough that Wolverine Country Stadium was required to empty out for 30 minutes before halftime even officially started, with Alamosa destined to have the second-half kickoff. Once action resumed, the guests quickly threatened to equalize, but Bayfield junior Brayden Hoffman alertly cleared AHS senior Bodhi Self’s dangerous 45th-minute crossing pass away from goalie Orion Botsford.
Not long after, Russell nearly netted his second goal in the 47th but shot a little too high. And though the crews grew more and more physical – retaliating for a questionable Bayfield tackle on the other side of the pitch just seconds before, Mean Moose sophomore Yanixan Padilla was yellow-carded in the 64th for flattening Hoffman – the match was proportionally exciting.
Awarded a free kick in the 71st, about 21 yards away from Broyles’ right, Casillas doubled the Wolverines’ lead with a beautiful bender into the high corner behind Broyles’ left shoulder, and after being fouled inside AHS’ 18 while chasing down a Casillas pass into space, junior Tauer Crotty converted the resulting 76th-minute penalty kick for a 3-0 advantage.
Avoiding a shutout – though not a third consecutive loss – in the 79th, Alamosa’s goal was no less impressive; Gonzalez-Ramirez (or freshman Oliver Pedro) crossed the ball in from Botsford’s left, and landed it where only Self could get to it for a flawless back-post redirect.
Bayfield will wait until Thursday when Montezuma-Cortez comes calling as the Wolverines’ last regular-season opponent. M-CHS stood 2-9-1 overall, 0-3-1 in league prior to a slated test on Saturday in Grand Junction against struggling 2A Caprock Academy but results were unavailable at press time.
