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Fountain Valley knocks out Devils for second-straight year

Nate Peterson

Soccer coach Brian Large was hoping the ghost of postseason past wouldn’t drop in on his Eagle Valley team Saturday in its state seeding-game at Fountain Valley.

Unfortunately, for Large and the Devils booters, ghosts are known to show up this time of year.

For the second-straight season, the Danes dispatched the Devils from postseason play, winning by the same 2-1 margin that they posted last year to end Eagle Valley’s season.



“The nature of playing sports is that there’s always a loser. That’s just how it goes sometimes,” said Large. “I was very proud of my boys. They played a good game, I thought. We just had a difficult time finishing against a team that has an excellent keeper.”

Defense was the focus of Danes’ attack on Saturday, as they held Devils star Tommy Migchelbrink to zero goals, and didn’t give up any points, other than the one they scored on themselves.

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In the 10th minute, Eagle Valley took a 1-0 lead after Brian Mcdonough’s corner kick ricocheted off the back of Danes’ defender and found its way into the net.

“I thought it was a header for a nice goal, but it was their own goal,” said Large.

Fountain Valley answered in the 30th minute, when it got a breakaway off a keeper’s punt and put the ball past Devil’s goalie Ross Herr.

“Ross tried to come out and cut the angle more, but it was too late,” said Large.

Then, after going into halftime knotted up, the Danes took the lead for good when they netted the decisive goal in the 50th minute.

Eagle Valley had plenty of scoring opportunities, including 13 corner kicks, but couldn’t seem to get the ball past Danes’ keeper Brennan Jones.

“I thought that the MVP of the game was their goalkeeper,” said Large. “He made some spectacular saves in the air.”

One of the most frustrating moments of the game was a one-on-one that Migchelbrink had on Jones, where the Danes’ goaltender managed to push Migchelbrink’s shot over the crossbar.

“I just got in and ripped a shot. I don’t know how he got a hand on it, but he somehow hit it over,” Migchelbrink. “They held us pretty well.”

The loss dropped the Devils to .500 on the season with a record of 7-7-1.

Nate Peterson is a sports writer for the Vail Daily. He can be reached at (970) 949-0555, ext. 608 or via npeterson@vaildaily.com.


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