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Devils boys lacrosse holds off Aspen in overtime

Julius Petersen delivers game-winning goal in extra period

Brady Blizzard resets the offense in Wednesday night’s game against Aspen.
Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily

One never likes to see late-game officiating causally determine the outcome of a game. Thanks to Erich and Julius Petersen, the Devils faithful did not leave Eagle Valley High School Wednesday night with that type of sour taste in their mouths.

“Calls weren’t going our way, but we finished it, which was really sweet,” Erich said.

Two minutes into overtime, the senior found his younger brother, who capitalized off the beautiful pass and put a frisky Aspen bunch to bed with a 12-11 victory.



“We started off slow but still pulled it out in the end,” Julius said.

Erich Petersen wrapped around the right post for the game’s first goal four minutes in, but Judd Gurtman responded immediately. The Aspen junior continued to be an offensive catalyst for the hungry and feisty underdogs.

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“We play with him in the summer, so we know him,” Erich Petersen said of the midfielder.

An eight-minute scoreless stretch in the second period gave way to a flurry of scoring to end the half. Aspen took it’s first lead with 3:34 to go, up 3-2. Thanks to two quick Devils’ goals, however, Eagle Valley held a 4-3 advantage at the break. Both Petersens described the home team’s first-half play as “sloppy.”

“We came out slow,” Julius admitted.

“We had a bad practice yesterday. If we can put those four quarters together, we could be a good team, you know.”

An Aspen athlete heads down the field in Wednesday’s game against Eagle Valley. The Devils routed the Skiers 12-11 in overtime.
Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily

Combine that with some debatably unfriendly calls, and the Devils fostered hope on the Aspen sideline as the both teams traded goals late. Trailing 8-7 with 8:16 to go, Gurtman tied things up after a long Skier possession. Twenty seconds later, Brady Haisfield gave them the lead.

On the other end, the elder Petersen channeled his inner Pete Maravich with a no-look pass to Eric Hasley, who dumped the tying goal into the net easily. Aspen answered again, taking a 10-9 lead with 5:21 to play, sending the junior varsity team-laden fan section into a frenzy.

At the 4:33 mark, Erich Petersen deked left, switched the ball to his right, and whipped in a 15-yard shot to tie the game again. Just 35 seconds, later, Eagle Valley appeared to wrap things up, going ahead 11-10. Aspen had other plans.

Erich Petersen makes a move in Wednesday’s game against Aspen in Gypsum.
Brad Hasley/Courtesy photo

Gurtman continued to be the spark plug, sending a clean strike to the back of the net with 1:10 to go, falling on his back in shock in the process.

In the final minute of regulation, Nolan Miner wound up as the recipient of one of the few whistles blown throughout the increasingly physical match, earning a two-minute unreleasable that made the final 60 seconds tick away precariously.

Uncharacteristically disconnected on offense throughout, Eagle Valley appeared to finally earn a break with 2:46 remaining, when speedster Erich Petersen broke loose and had one man to beat before a home timeout was called, stopping play.

“Right there, I was a little upset, but it worked out,” Petersen said, noting that without a valiant save by goalie Alexander Kostick in the initial minute of overtime, he wouldn’t have been afforded the opportunity to begin with.

“Xander made an amazing save — so shout out to Xander — he saved us the game.”

Coming out of the huddle, Aspen had unknowingly sealed its own fate.

“We talked about it in the timeout before: they slide AJ’s, it’s game over,” Julius stated of Aspen’s defensive adjacent slide. When Erich beat his man, instead of getting covered from a slide out of the crease, Julius’s defender came to help, opening the door for an easy decision and the game-winner.

“Aspen is a really good team,” Julius complimented. Since joining the league last year, the senior said, “Every game has been close.”

The rematch is set for May 4 in Aspen. Eagle Valley improved to 7-1 overall and 4-0 in league play and faces Vail Mountain (6-1) on Saturday in Vail.

Eagle Valley’s Brady Blizzard works the offensive end during the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s game against Aspen.
Ryan Sederquist/Vail Daily

 


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