Prep notebook: Battle Mountain boys lacrosse beat Eagle Valley 8-7 in double overtime

Battle Mountain defeated Eagle Valley in boys lacrosse late Friday night, nipping the Devils 8-7 in double overtime in Gypsum. Battle Mountain coach Pat Doherty, who witnessed an eerily similar game take place at Eagle Valley last year — the Huskies won 10-9 in double-overtime on May 6, 2022 — but from the Devils’ sideline as an assistant coach, said he didn’t have any extra motivation to go for a season sweep of the down valley rivals.

“I got nothing but love and respect for those guys,” the coach said after the Huskies improved to 5-5 overall and 4-4 in league play, breaking a tie with Eagle Valley. “It was kind of crazy to see how things played out almost identical to last year.”

The Devils came out strong, building a 2-0 first-quarter lead; they were up 5-2 at half.

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“Although it was a three-goal game, we knew that we were right there with them,” Doherty said. “Our guys have seemingly, whether we want to or not, decided we’re a second-half team.”

The Huskies moved Brock Petersmeyer onto Devils star Julius Petersen and tightened things up in general on the defensive end. “Having to run around and cover him is a task in and of itself,” Doherty said in praising the senior. “We cleared the ball a little bit better, we got a handful more ground balls — and we gave our offense some opportunities. All the guys played great.”

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The Huskies scored two straight to take a 7-6 lead with under three minutes remaining. Eagle Valley ran a play for Petersen, who went topside and stung the corner to send the game into overtime.

With snow dumping, the two teams played through one overtime without a score. After a couple of possessions in the second, the Huskies ran an out-of-bounds play from behind the net and Thomas Dekanich made a left-handed feed to Hunter Roach, who netted the game-winner.

“Hunter is just killing it on ground balls and it makes a huge difference in our game, so for him to score the winning goal was pretty cool because he does all the hard work,” Doherty said.

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“Thomas just moved to attack for us in the Fruita game, so this is his second game and he’s done phenomenal. He’s really allowed us to do a lot of different things.”

Doherty also had praise for both of his goalies, Seth Bamford, who played the first half and Cash Case, who allowed just two scores in the second.

“We have two phenomenal goalies,” Doherty said. “And these guys battle it out in practice and so it was time to give Cash an opportunity to step on the field a little more and he’s played great.”

Battle Mountain is at Glenwood Springs next Monday while Eagle Valley will continue its season at Aspen on Tuesday.

Devils baseball defeat Huskies 7-5

Eagle Valley baseball earned a season-sweep of Battle Mountain Saturday morning, defeating the Huskies 7-5. P.J. Lombardo led the Devils offensively, going 2-for-4 with three RBIs. On the mound, Patrick Reno struck out seven in five innings, allowing just four hits, and Elias Pena picked up the save.

Battle Mountain got out to an early lead as Cooper Irwin drove in Grady Devins on a double to centerfield and then scored two batters later on a wild pitch. The Devils responded with three runs in the bottom of the inning, but the Huskies got back in front, 5-3 in the top of the second.

In the bottom of the second, Pena got on base with a walk and was driven in by Jacob Loupe’s single on the next at bat. Jack Robinson would advance on an error in centerfield and Lombardo tripled to drive in two and give the Devils the lead for good. Lombardo scored at the end of the inning as the rest of the game played out with zero runs for both teams.

Irwin finished the game going 2-for-4 with 3 RBIs at the plate and struck out eight in five innings. Aaron Santillano went 3-for-4 from the plate and Grady Devins and Hans Wittenberg each tallied hits the Huskies.

Battle Mountain (1-8, 0-4 league) is at Palisade (9-6 overall, 5-0 league) next Thursday while Eagle Valley (6-4 overall, 3-0 league) is at Grand Junction Central on Thursday.