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Vail Mountain escapes with 2-1 win

Chris Freud
Vail, CO Colorado

PARACHUTE – There is a reason Bandoni Alumni Field is 120 yards-by-75 yards.

Vail Mountain School soccer – regardless of gender – likes to play wide.

And thus, VMS girls soccer was quite happy to get out off Parachute Tuesday with a 2-1 overtime win against Grand Valley.



“It was just one of those games on a small pitch where the players were always under pressure,” said VMS coach Bob Bandoni. “It was very difficult to get a rhythm and we had a hard time managing the game.”

This is tactful Bandon-ese for phrases that start with “Dios mio” and end with the coach getting in trouble for insulting the pride of small bergs on the Western Slope.

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Down 1-0 in the 62nd minute, it was Lizzy Bolyard to the rescue, splitting the Cardinals’ right backs and then going left panel. With the game in overtime, the Gore Rangers went for the win, moving Amy Sherman out of the back.

As it turned out, that bore fruit as Maagie Sherman roofed her shot and VMS came away with three big points.

The reason Bandoni was concerning himself with such pedestrian matters such as wins and losses is that the 3A Slope race is getting very interesting. With the win, VMS is 8-2 overall and 6-0 in the league with three Slope contests remaining.

VMS hosts the Colorado Rocky Mountain School Thursday at 4 p.m., followed by Basalt on Saturday at 11 a.m. The season ends with a nonconference tilt at home against Aspen Monday and then the conference game at the Skiers next Thursday. (If teams play twice in the 3A Slope, the second game counts toward the standings.)

Though there are infinite permutations, the simplest path the VMS girls soccer’s first league title would be running the table.

Devils ladies lax downs Steamboat

STEAMBOAT – Eagle Valley girls lacrosse inched closer to the .500 mark with a 12-6 win Tuesday at Steamboat Springs.

The Devils (4-5) got hat tricks from their traditional trio of Ashley Winsor, Cory Cramer and Kayla Gagnon. Haley Hutton, Jessica Trujillo and Megan Muehlenthaler also scored.

Eagle Valley coach Kim Andree made sure the Devils had the win in hand and then used the rest of the game to ease in the team’s younger players so that they could gain valuable experience.

“What we tried to do is show our younger players what the starters were doing and then put them in the game with the knowledge of what they watched,” she said. “As we kept putting in the younger players, they got more comfortable. And by the end of the game the starters were cheering on those players, so it was a great team experience.”

Eagle Valley hosts Fruita Thursday at 4 p.m. at the Gypsum Sports Complex.

Sports Editor Chris Freud can be reached at 970-748-2934 or cfreud@vaildaily.com.


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