2A boys soccer semifinals: Crested Butte, Lotus School for Excellence set to meet in title match
COLORADO SPRINGS – The Class 2A boys soccer semifinals were held Saturday night at UCCS Mountain Lion Stadium and the result of two riveting matches was a championship game that will feature teams with very different championship histories.
In the first semifinal, No. 1 Crested Butte defeated No. 4 Ridgway and No. 2 Lotus School for Excellence defeated No. 6 Fountain Valley. On Saturday, Nov. 13, the 2A state championship match at Switchbacks Weidner Field will feature a defending champion facing off against a team making its state title match debut.
(1) Crested Butte 2, (4) Ridgway 1
In two regular-season contests against No. 1 Crested Butte, No. 4 Ridgway didn’t score a goal and lost both by a combined 6-0 margin. But Ridgway had the defending state champions on the ropes for 78 minutes in a semifinals rematch on Saturday night.
Then the champs came alive.
Down 1-0 in the Class 2A semifinals at UCCS Mountain Lion Stadium on Saturday, Crested Butte tied the game with 1 minutes, 50 seconds remaining and scored again with 15 seconds left on the clock in a last-effort blitz that sent them back to the state championship match.
“Ridgeway is a phenomenal team and we knew it was going to be super tough,” Crested Butte head coach Than Acuff said. “We switched things up (to a 3-4-3) in the middle of the second half because we knew we needed to press. With pressure comes opportunities and with opportunity comes goals. We just had to not stop believing and these boys, to be honest, showed me a resiliency that I wasn’t sure that they had.
“I’ve been looking for that X-factor out of my team and I final saw that tonight.”
Cooper Ahern scored the game’s first goal in the 28th minute, giving Ridgway (11-4) its first lead of the season against Crested Butte (17-1). The goal stood throughout the rest of the first half and nearly the entirety of the second.
With just under two minutes to play, Crested Butte junior Ace Gaither played a long cross in from the right side that found an open Jacob Bernholtz for the equalizer. Then, just 95 seconds later, the pair connected in similar fashion on the eventual game-winner.
“Tonight was just a grind,” Crested Butte junior Jamis Matlock said. “I give all the credit to the boys for not giving up and to keep pushing. It’s great to be back in the championship game but that’s going to be a grind too. All the teams are good at this point, so we’ll see what we can do.”
Between the two teams, Crested Butte and Ridgway have combined to win all three 2A championships since boys soccer added the classification in 2018.
Acuff added after the game that the Titans’ latest semifinal victory was dedicated to RE-1J superintendent Leslie Nichols, who has been at every one of the team’s games.
(2) Lotus School for Excellence 5, (5) Fountain Valley 2
The Lotus School for Excellence boys soccer team has developed a taste for history this fall.
On Saturday night at UCCS Mountain Lion Stadium, the Meteors appeared in their first Class 2A state semifinals match. Not only that, but the No. 2-seeded Meteors (14-4) won 5-2 over No. 5 Fountain Valley (13-5) to punch their ticket to their first state championship match.
Next Saturday at Switchbacks Weidner Field, the Meteors’ meteoric rise will face its final obstacle in the form of defending state champion and No. 1-seed Crested Butte.
“It’s a pretty big moment,” Meteors head coach Bennett Pang said. “I think the athletic program at Lotus, overall, is starting to make a name for itself. Just last week, we had a runner get a medal at the state cross country meet. This is my second year and the first year was about setting the standards for the program. Now that we’ve kind of established our program here, we have a clear mindset for how we approach every game and every day. That’s something we’ve worked hard to establish and now we’re seeing the fruits of that effort.”
Tied at 1-1 going into the second half, the Meteors broke the stalemate with a goal in the first minute of the second. That go-ahead score ignited the Meteors’ talented offense, which poured in two more goals in the next 12 minutes to break the game open.
For the Meteors, Senior Nuradean Sado had two goals, senior Adani Hassan also scored twice and sophomore Fredy Peraza scored as well.
“Credit goes to all the players because we had a good talk at half and made some adjustments, but they’re the ones who have to execute,” Pang said. “We try to put them in a position to do well, but they have to get the job done. We knew that we had the ability to get the job done in the second half and I’m glad that we were able to do it.”
The Meteors’ first shot at a state title will begin at 9 a.m. next Saturday.
