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VMS sets up showdown after beating Aspen

Chris Freud

After two rather sluggish games in wins against CRMS and Eagle Valley earlier this week, the Gore Rangers blasted out of the gate Saturday at Aspen, scoring four first-half goals on the way to a 4-2 win.

“What we’re pleased about is not only where the goals came from in our last few games,” VMS coach Bob Bandoni said. “In our last few games we felt we have played reactionary soccer. Only when the other team scored or put pressure on us, did we start to play. We wanted to come to the field with a different disposition.”

That disposition had to appear to be downright ornery to the host Skiers. Andrew Feldman, who seems more comfortable in the back of the net than in his own bed at home, score two goals. Clay Jewett added a nice score from his left foot and Howdy Tuthill continued his scoring ways with another goal.



Other heroes included A.J. LeGaye and David Bird, both of whom were playing with the flu.

“David was pale as could be. All his freckles were gone,” Bandoni joked.

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Fullback Drew Daley was also clutch. He headed an Aspen shot away from an empty VMS net. Other people, whose dispositions were balanced between tactical knowledge and passion, according to the coach, included Dane Jacobs, Brett Branca, Duncan Robinson, Tyler Kjesbo, Max Avery, Michael Busenhart, Ben Cope, Zach Lucido, Sylvan Ellefson (back from injury) and Patrick Scanlan, among others.

Of course, Saturday was another big day for young Patrick as Notre Dame also beat Stanford to stay undefeated.

Moving from green and gold back to to blue and white, if there was one thing with which Bandoni was not happy it was VMS’ pace of play in the second half.

“Something we need to overcome, which is not uncharacteristic of a young team, is the inability to adjust the pace of the game to the game’s situation,” Bandoni said. “We lead 4-0 and Aspen started to panic and speed the pace of play and we went along with them. In this situation, we’d rather see our players steady the pace of the game.”

With the win, VMS moved to 9-1 in league and completed a sweep of the Skiers.

Just for kicks: Basalt beat Roaring Fork 4-1 Saturday. The Longhorns, also 9-1, come to East Vail Thursday for a game which pretty much decides the league title. … Jake Utzig sat out Saturday’s game with a bruised knee. He is day-to-day, but, then again, aren’t we all. … Busy weekend for the Bandoni family. Bob coached two high school games Saturday and then saw elder daughter Mia and the rest of the mighty U-12 Gore Rangers play in a weekend club tourney. The tourney continues today and will likely be remembered throughout the ages.


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