Prep notebook: Eagle Valley soccer gets past Summit and Battle Mountain beats Palisade

Eagle Valley and Battle Mountain’s girls soccer teams claimed a pair of wins late in the week, with the Huskies finding some redemption after dropping their first game of the year on Thursday.

Addison Mandeville scored the lone goal for Eagle Valley in the second half of Thursday’s 1-0 over Summit in Gypsum as Jaquelyn Castellon got the shutout in the net. The Devils improved to 2-3-1 overall and 1-1-1 in the league heading into a road trip next week. The Devils have three-straight away games, starting in Steamboat Springs on Monday.

Battle Mountain lost 1-0 to No. 4-ranked Evergreen in Edwards on Thursday. Mary Cox scored the lone goal of the night for the Cougars off a corner kick in the game’s first four minutes.

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“We went toe-to-toe with them the rest of the way,” Battle Mountain head coach Dave Cope said. “I was really happy with how we played. We kind of showed ourselves that we could be a team that could give a team like that a scare in the playoffs.”

The Huskies got back on the winning track Saturday in Palisade, coming from behind to take a 2-1 win, thanks to a pair of goals from Alessandra Caballero.

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“She’s really having a great season,” Cope said of the junior forward. “She’s doing lots of little things well — her first touch, passing — and today the reward of all that good play was two goals, which is fantastic.”

Coming into Saturday’s matchup with the Bulldogs — who were undefeated in league play to that point — the Huskies knew they’d need to keep their eyes on Mia De Villegas-Decker. The junior captain came into the match averaging 1.3 goals a contest, and scored the game’s first points to give Palisade a 1-0 lead.

“I think the experience from the Summit game, coming from behind to win helped the girls keep their composure,” Cope said in reference to his team’s 5-3 win last Monday. “We just stayed calm and doing what we do.”

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Caballero knocked in her first goal right before the half. Midway through the second, Cassie Ledezma assisted on the game-winner. The Huskies dominated possession for the final 20 minutes to close things out.

“We managed the game really well in terms of playing with the lead, using the clock and using the ball,” Cope stated. “It was really good.”

The win puts the Huskies, at 3-0 in league play, in the 4A Western Slope driver’s seat. Palisade and Steamboat Springs, both at 2-1 are lurking and Eagle Valley sits in fourth at 1-1-1.

“It’s exciting; that’s the position you want to be in,” Cope said.
“But, it’s a case of what have you done for me lately. We have Summit on Monday and they probably feel like they should have beat us — they were ahead twice in that game,” he continued. “I don’t think the girls are taking anything for granted. Summit on the road is going to be a really tough game.”

Also on Thursday, Jaycee Pittman scored three goals and had two assists to lead Grand Valley to an 8-0 win over Vail Christian. The Saints (1-3 overall, 0-1 league) will play Colorado Rocky Mountain School in Carbondale next Thursday.

Track notes: Battle Mountain girls win Erie Tiger Twilight

The Battle Mountain girls track team scored 74 points to top the 24-team field of mostly Front Range schools at Friday’s Erie Tiger Twilight in Erie, Colorado. The Huskies received an individual win from Milaina Almonte in the 1600-meter run (5:30.18) and also took the 4×100 (53.28), 4×400 (4:16.08) and sprint medley relay titles (1:53.92) to gap runner-up Horizon High School by seven points.

Tabi Schroeder (27.95) and Lindsey Whitton (2:37.09) also grabbed runner-up finishes in the 200-meter dash and 800-meter run, respectively, and Isabella Zastrow (1:06.62) was third in the 400-meter dash.

The boys day was highlighted by a win from Porter Middaugh (4:35.55) in the 1600 and top-5 finishes from Quinn Thuon (10-04) in the pole vault and Cooper Skidmore (78-08) in the javelin. The boys team finished in 11th, scoring 24 points, as Erie High School (137) more than doubled the runner-up team from Broomfield High School (63) to win the overall title.

Lacrosse notes: Huskies take down Devils 13-7

Battle Mountain boys lacrosse took down Eagle Valley 13-7 in Edwards on Friday night to improve to 3-3 overall and 2-3 in the 4A Western Slope.

“The Huskies moved the ball well on offense and took advantage of odd man situations,” Eagle Valley head coach Weston Gleiss stated afterward. The Devils dropped to 4-2 overall and 3-2 in the league. Gleiss’s team travels to Vail on Tuesday for a rematch with the Gore Rangers (3-2 overall, 3-2 league), whom they defeated 9-7 in the season opener.