Vail Christian falls to Grand Valley, 2-1
Townsend Bessent | Daily file photo |
EDWARDS —The feeling is somewhere between disbelief and heartbreak, perhaps in equal parts.
Vail Christian soccer lost to Grand Valley, 2-1, on Thursday, but the bigger story was that Saints sophomore Jessie Raitt went down with an apparent knee injury … again.
And in answer to the next question, no, it wasn’t the right knee she injured last spring and rehabbed so diligently. It was the left.
Midway through the first half, Raitt went for the ball, planted her left leg and went down. No one on Vail Christian’s coaching staff is a doctor (or plays one on TV), but it didn’t look good, and Raitt left Freedom Park in Edwards at halftime.
“She came back so quickly and so well last time.,” Saints coach Barbara Wilson said. “So, a lot of professional athletes do it. Jessie’s a great athlete in all the senses of the word. She’s got the physicality and the mental side. She can come back again and do what she loves.”
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“I think it’s really sad to see her go down,” Abby Bossow said. “We’re just praying for her and hopefully, she can get through it really soon.”
Oh, yes, the game
The Saints showed a lot of heart, erasing a 1-0 Grand Valley lead. Vail Christian started well and then was understandably deflated when Raitt went down.
The Saints came on in the second half, and continued their prowess on set pieces. Calton Morgan sent a free kick into the box and, after a deflection Bossow headed it into the net for the equalizer.
“I was just standing next to the goal and it bounced off the goalie’s hands, and I hit it with my head,” Bossow said. “Morgan helped a ton.”
Unfortunately, the Saints had a slight defensive lapse right after that goal and the Cardinals’ Shaya Chenowith scored her second of the game in what would be the game-winner.
Vail Christian (4-5) still has a lot of work left on the schedule. The Saints host Roaring Fork on Monday and Vail Mountain School on Thursday, followed by a road trip to Aspen on Friday.
Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934, cfreud@vaildaily.com and @cfreud.
