Battle Mountain girls soccer gets revenge over Eagle Valley with 1-0 win

The Eagle Valley girls soccer team left a sour taste in Battle Mountain’s mouths for the entire spring break after stealing a 2-1 road victory in enemy territory on April 15. On Tuesday in Gypsum, the Devils were determined to send another message: that win over the second-best team in the league wasn’t a fluke. The Huskies, however, had other plans.

“Yeah that sucked a lot,” Huskies defensemen Charlotte Thelan said of the rivalry loss from 17 days ago. 

“The break was needed. It was a tough game but we came back angry. Just gave us motivation to come back super aggressive.”

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Six minutes into the game, Battle Mountain’s Thea Armistead took a short corner on the side and centered it to Fiona Lloyd, who put home the game’s only score as the Huskies pulled off a 1-0 win.

“It was a hard-fought game,” Thelan said. “Glad we got the result.”

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“Super proud of how these girls played today,” Devils head coach Jess Platt said. “All the effort out there; yeah, it went Battle Mountain’s way today, but not for lack of trying.”

“Over 160 minutes, we’re 2-2, so you got to hand it to Eagle,” Battle Mountain coach Dave Cope added.

At the end of the first half, Eagle Valley had back-to-back golden opportunities. First, Addison Mandeville broke free. Battle Mountain goalie Elle Glendinning came forward and Mandeville sent a shot from straight-away that just rolled wide left. A minute later Alondra Ruiz had a chance from the right side, but her waist-high line drive also went to the left of the net.

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With 21:30 remaining, Daisy Becerra punched the ball out from Thelen’s cradle just past midfield. Becerra chased down the fast break, but Glendinning was able to scoop it up.

“We had a lot of great opportunities from a diverse group of players,” Platt said. 

Lloyd earned the sideline two minutes later on the left side of her own end, centering to Dalia Ledezma, who appeared to have an open look. Devils senior captain Heidi Reyes, however, appeared from nowhere to make a key steal, then pushed the ball ahead to midfield. A Devil launched a long pass, which fellow senior Sophie Webster tracked down along the far sideline before turning to fire a 25-yard bomb at the Husky goal. Though it’s effect ultimately offered nothing more than a moment of excitement for the eager home crowd, the energy was mounting in favor of the black and red as the Huskies seemed to be reeling.

Kassandra Carpenter’s turnaround shot on goal with 15:04 remaining, followed by to another hustle play by Webster — indicated that the Devils weren’t going to let up until the final whistle.

“Yeah it was definitely chaotic,” Glendinning said of the final 20 minutes. “We were trying to hold onto the win and they were like, ‘boom, boom, boom,’ and we were trying to keep composed.”

With 3:35 remaining, Glendinning made the play of the game.

Mandeville got loose once again and fired a gorgeous beam at the net from 10-yards out. Glendinning dove, blocking it off her hand. The Devil forward didn’t give up on the sequence, however, poking it back at Glendinning with her right foot, but the Husky keeper stopped that as well, earning a bloody nose with her valiant face-block.

“That double save was really special,” Cope complimented before praising his entire defensive line for the Huskies — who have allowed 12 goals all year — stingy defense. “The mentality has to be that we defend with 11 and I thought we did that today.”

Glendinning said she was focused more on cutting off the far post angle than thinking about the moment’s magnitude.

“You don’t get all emotional,” she said. “You just get down to the basics. On the rebound, it was just me and her, so I just threw myself right at her and it hit my face.”

With the win, Battle Mountain improves to 9-2-2 overall and 6-1-2 in league play. They’ll host Steamboat Springs on Thursday and end the season at The Classical Academy. Palisade, whom the Huskies have beaten and tied this year, currently sits atop the 4A Western Slope with a 7-1-1 record. The Bulldogs host Summit on Saturday. If the Tigers fail to pull off the upset, the Huskies, currently ranked 12th in the CHSAANow.com RPI, would look to the Selection & Seeding Index for seeding purposes into the 32-team state tournament.

“We’re proud of our body of work,” Cope said. “And especially how we’ve done in one-goal games. If you’re averaging under a goal a game,” he continued as his state runner-up boys team, watching the game as fans, came walking across the field. “They (the boys) won the quarterfinal 1-0 and the semifinal 1-0 — if you can defend you have a chance.”

“I think we want to get a home playoff game and take it to states hopefully,” Thelan said. “Show up and show out.”

The Devils, ranked 45th in the latest RPI rankings, fall to 4-8-2 and 2-5-2 with one more game at Summit on Thursday.

“I think we have a lot to look forward to. We’re going to have a really different looking squad next year — we’re losing nine seniors, all impact players,” Platt said.

“So, I think we have some great opportunities from kids who are ready to go. They want those minutes and they’re ready. I think we’re ready to grow and ready to learn from all the experiences we had, good and bad.”