2A Boys Soccer: This One Had it All as Crested Butte Emerges in PK Thriller
By Alan Versaw
COLORADO SPRINGS — “Cool heads win hot games.”
After five state championships, including Saturday’s nail-biter with Forge Christian, Than Acuff ought to know. In 23 years as head coach at Crested Butte, he’s seen almost everything.
This year’s path through the playoffs has seen Crested Butte face a run of bigger, more physical teams. Prior to this game Crested Butte had gone to OT twice in order to advance to the championship. The 2A title matchup against Forge Christian was more of the same.
Acuff explained how you survive a physical mismatch like the one they faced Saturday, “That’s been a big thing with these guys, because they [Forge] are not the first physical team we’ve faced. Our kids never got mad, never turned and complained to the ref. They locked in and played.”
After 110 minutes of scoreless soccer between two of Colorado’s most tradition-rich programs, the physical, body-on-body aspect of the game stepped aside, and they settled things with a penalty shootout. Five shooters from both teams. No defenders, no traffic, just a leg, a ball, and a keeper.
Since the penalty shots are taken at what amounts to barely more than point-blank range, if the keeper guesses wrong, it’s a near-certain score. If the keeper guesses correctly, he has a fighting chance at a stop.
Three penalty shots in, it was looking like a bleak ending for the Crested Butte season. Forge was up 3-1 and it seemed only a matter of seconds until the Titans’ storybook run through the playoffs would end on a sour note.
But, suddenly, it was as if Crested Butte’s season was only beginning. Wyatt Cook went right on his penalty shot and beat Forge keeper Ben McLean. 3-2.
Next up, Forge Christian went over the net with a shot. Still 3-2, and the Titans’ season stayed alive, though apparently on life support.
Crested Butte’s Max Naughton also went right on his shot, once again beating McLean. Though the score was now knotted at 3, Forge could still win it all on the final penalty shot.
This time, however, Jakob Klemme—whom Acuff had subbed in for Wyatt Anders, the one who had shut down the Fury attack all morning during regulation play—guessed correctly and snuffed the shot.
“Those two keepers have been switching off all season long,” Acuff explained, “but when we went into the postseason, sophomore Wyatt Anders won the starting spot. But when we went to PK shots in practice, Jakob showed he was the better penalty shot stopper.” In a few moments, Klemme would validate all the trust that had been placed on his shoulders.
With the score tied at 3-3, an extra penalty kick from each team was required to try to break the tie. Acuff called on Argentinian exchange student Matias Bonnaterre to take the Titans’ turn.
Breaking the pattern of the last two Titan shots, Bonnaterre went left. McLean guessed correctly on the direction, but his outstretched arm extended too late to stop Bonnaterre from burying the shot in the back of the net. 4-3 Titans, but the contest wasn’t yet over.
Forge Christian had a chance to tie the game and force another round of shots. Once again, however, Klemme found himself in the right position, clinching the title for Crested Butte.
“I knew that I would be the sixth,” explained Bonnaterre about the possibility of stepping up if the initial round of penalty shots ended in a tie. Bonnaterre told Coach Acuff, “’Yes, no problem, I will shoot this.’ And it was a beautiful opportunity for me.”
Given the opportunity, Bonnaterre went with power and buried his shot. It’s hard to say in advance what the highlight of a year as an exchange student might end up as, but winning the state championship on a penalty kick will assuredly make the short list of possibilities.
