Battle Mountain gets No. 1 seed, Montrose on Thursday
Playoff rematches abound in draw
Battle Mountain soccer has no complaints. Now it just has to do the job.
The 4A state bracket is out. Battle Mountain (10-0) got the No. 1 seed and will play Montrose on Thursday at 5 p.m. in Edwards during the first round.
“No complaints from our end,” Huskies coach David Cope said. “It’s indicative of a body of work. During the last two years, we’ve played 28 games and lost one. That’s a nice recognition from the state. Now we have to live up to it.”
Were the Huskies to advance, they would host the winner of Standley Lake-Lewis Palmer, with whom Battle Mountain have some unfinished postseason business, in the state quarterfinals on Saturday.
Give Cope credit
If this teaching-history/coaching -soccer thing doesn’t work out for Cope, the man can get a job for espn.com, if Joe Lunardi retires. Cope pretty much nailed Battle Mountain’s seed and opponent in the bracket.
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As mentioned in the recap of Thursday’s Eagle Valley game, CHSAA always tries to do geographic matchups — as long as they’re nonconference matches in the first round — in normal times. In COVID-19 days, less travel is even better, so the Indians were logical.
Cope only got it wrong in seeding the Huskies No. 2 with Windsor, the only other 10-0 team in 4A, getting the top seed in his prospective tournament. Part of that was superstition — it’s bad form to rank your own team No. 1. The other part was a worry the Slope team might get slighted.
In fairness, the rating-percentage index, usually the sole ranking instrument for the postseason, and the other ratings (maxpreps and the CHSAA Coaches’ Poll), have been kind to Battle Mountain soccer.
Since the formulas started, the Huskies have been ranked 5-1-1 going into the state tournament.
Rematch time
While the formulas and the math do decide the rankings, it does seem that CHSAA, nonetheless, has a sense of humor. Just as the 2012 Huskies (15-0 entering the state tournament as the sixth seed) had to go through No. 3 Evergreen to climb the mountain, the Huskies have familiar faces on the road to April 28’s semifinals and May 1’s championship.
Honestly, a Battle Mountain-Montrose match is a fixture on both teams’ schedules when a global pandemic is not raging. The Huskies opened 2019 by beating Montrose, 7-2. Not surprisingly, the Huskies and Indians met in the second round of the 2019 playoffs with Battle Mountain advancing, 1-0, on an Ivan “Tommy” Solis goal.
“I think it’s great for our guys to look at that score,” Cope said. “That was tough, a difficult game. It was also a harbinger when we had difficulty scoring.”
Seeded No. 1 in 2019, Battle Mountain met No. 8 Lewis-Palmer in the quarterfinals, losing 3-1. If the bracket goes to form. Lewis-Palmer is in town Saturday. If it’s not Lewis-Palmer, it would be Standley Lake, who beat Battle Mountain during the 2015 quarterfinals in excruciating fashion.
That was the year that team captain and all-league defender Miles Joersz accidentally scored an own goal on goalie Jack Skidmore. The Huskies lost to Standley Lake, 3-1, but rallied the next year behind Joersz to make the state final against The Classical Academy. (Yes, Owen MacFarlane, it happens to the best defenders, so don’t feel bad, kid.)
And now a letter to the editor
Yes, this normally goes in the Opinion section, but we have a comment regarding the 1966 World Cup. When Cope won his the 300th game of his boys’ coaching career, the Daily mentioned that the future coach of Battle Mountain was left in the parking lot of Wembley Stadium during England’s glorious 4-2 victory over West Germany in the final.
According to legend, Alan Cope’s boss in England in 1966 was an Italian fan. When Italy got knocked out, the boss gave his tickets to the final to Alan. Thus, Alan and Hazel Cope were at Wembley. The bigger question was, “Where was 6-month-old David at the time?” The coach has joked that his folks just left him in the car in the parking lot.
From the august desk of Hazel Cope:
“Dear Mr. Freud,
“We are writing to correct a serious mistake in your coverage of [the Summit] Varsity Soccer match.
“We did NOT leave our 6-month-old son, David Cope, in the Wembley Stadium Car Park while we watched the glorious victory of England over Germany (again), this time winning the 1966 World Cup.
“We traveled to Wembley that day on a London Transport train. Our request to leave David in the care of the Left Luggage Office, among the umbrellas, was declined. However, when we explained to the Wembley authorities that David’s future destiny included being the 300-game-winning coach of Colorado’s finest soccer team, they gave us permission to park his perambulator near the England bench so that he could keep a keen eye on the game. He was able to confirm to the referee that Germany’s supposed winning goal did not cross the goal line.
“From Alan and Hazel Cope.“
We’re glad we cleared that up. In the meantime, the Copes seem to be on a No. 1-seed jag. Not only are the Huskies atop their bracket, but Fairview is the No. 1 team in Class 5A. The Knights (9-0-1) feature senior Owen Cope, David’s newphew, the son of Cope’s younger brother, Thomas, and clearly gifted grandchild of Alan and Hazel.
