Prep notebook: Huskies, Devils and Gore Rangers pick up key lacrosse wins

The Battle Mountain girls and Eagle Valley and Vail Mountain School boys lacrosse teams picked up a couple of key late-season victories over Roaring Fork-area squads on Tuesday night. The Huskies held on for a win over Roaring Fork 13-11 in Edwards, the Devils crushed Glenwood Springs 15-3 on the road and Vail Mountain School defeated Aspen 10-8 in Vail.

The Huskies regained sole possession of first place in the Mountain East standings with the win, moving to 8-1 and dropping the second-place Rams to 7-2. A loss would have given the Rams the league title.

“Big win for our program last night,” stated head coach Mat Ballay.

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The Huskies got out fast, building an 8-1 lead early.

“But Roaring Fork responded well,” Ballay noted.

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“They were methodical on offense and created some momentum for themselves.” The Rams went on a three-goal run, ultimately ending the half trailing by four, 10-6.

While the first-half shoot-out was followed by a second half defensive battle. Battle Mountain goalie Roxy Surridge eventually iced the game with back-to-back saves in the final 90 seconds and the Huskies were able to run out the clock clinging to their two-goal advantage.

Alexandra Dienst led the way with five goals as seven Huskies scored. Molly Kessenich added three scores of her own plus an assist, Anne Hilgartner had two assists, and Piper Sassi, Quincy Pribramsky and Kate and Izabelle Kovacik also added goals.

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If Battle Mountain beats Steamboat Springs on Saturday in Edwards, the Huskies will be league champions for the first time. It would also be the first time since 2015 that a team other than Aspen has finished atop the league standings.

“It was the biggest game of the year for our team given the consequences of the outcome,” Ballay said.

The Gore Rangers made amends for a March 24 11-7 loss at Aspen with Tuesday’s victory, which also broke a league-standings tie. The Skiers dropped to 7-4 in 4A Western Slope play as VMS improved to 8-3. Vail Mountain will end its season at Glenwood Springs on Thursday and Evergreen on Saturday.

Team	League record	Overall record	GF	GA
Battle Mountain	8-1	10-4	171	110
Roaring Fork	7-2	9-4	165	112
Aspen	5-3	8-5	182	121
Steamboat Springs	3-5	5-6	115	121
Eagle Valley	3-6	5-8	139	146
Summit	0-9	0-12	71	205

Eagle Valley’s win over the Demons was its second in a row — the Devils also defeated their rivals 10-7 on April 20. Peter Boyd had four goals and four assists to lead his team offensively. Declan Kelly, Julius Petersen, Christian Petersen and Alexander Smiley all scored twice as well and Cooper Puntel, Trevyn Delong and Matthew Bradford added goals for the Devils, who improved to 6-7 overall and 5-6 in league play.

Soccer notes: Vail Mountain School improves to 10-0 with 6-1 win over Basalt

The Vail Mountain School girls soccer team improved to 10-0 with a 6-1 road victory over Basalt on Tuesday. Stella Stone and Liv Moritz led the way with two goals apiece in the win.

Avery Schaffler got the No.3-ranked Gore Rangers on the board first, scoring off an on-target midfield pass from Stone. Schaffler returned the favor, setting up Stone for the second score. Liv Moritz took one herself as the first-half ended 3-1.

The Moritz duo opened up the game in the second half. Liv found her younger sister, Solveig, who belted it to the upper right side of the net; later, the freshmen would assist on her sister’s second goal to make it 5-1. The game’s final points were registered when Annabel Dorf dished it to Stone for the senior’s second goal of the afternoon.

Vail Mountain will play its final home game on Thursday against No. 8 Delta (11-2) before ending the regular season Saturday at Denver Christian (11-2-1), the No. 3-ranked team in 2A. The 2023 state tournament brackets are released on May 7.