Demons shut out Palisade

Glenwood keeps pressure on throughout game

Click to Enlarge Browse and Buy Post Independent Photos Glenwood’s Kendall Strautman takes a shot on goal, backed up by teammate Chelsea Vallario in a home game against Palisade Thursday afternoon. Glenwood won 3-0. Kelley Cox Post Independent

By Jeff Caspersen
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
April 4, 2008

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Glenwood Springs 3, Palisade 0

Thursday at Glenwood Springs Palisade 0 0 — 0 Glenwood 1 2 — 3 Goals (assists): GS — Allie Rippy (Leah Mansfield), 27:20; Kendall Strautman (Chelsea Vallario), 44:30; Abbe Vincent (Vallario), 48:55. Goalies (saves): P—Amelia Davis (12); GS—Kelsie Hert (1), Anna Wiltse (0).

GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — At the time, it was a game-saving play.

Megan Cleland watched Palisade’s only first-half shot on goal bounce off the fingertips of goalkeeper Kelsie Hert and roll slowly toward an open net.

The Glenwood Springs junior defender charged the ball, outpacing a Bulldog
pursuer in the process, and knocked the ball away with a slide.

Had the Lindsay Yeates-struck ball gone in, it might have changed the complexion of
a girls soccer game Glenwood led 1-0. Instead, Cleland prevented the Bulldogs from
building any momentum and, behind two second-half goals, the Demons rolled to a
3-0 win on Thursday.

“Pretty much as soon as the ball hit off the tip of her fingers I thought I better get back
there just in case,” Cleland said of the play, which went down with 6 minutes to go in
the half and stood as Palisade’s only true scoring threat of the afternoon.

Six minutes earlier, Allie Rippy gave Glenwood a 1-0 lead, converting a Leah
Mansfield cross into a point-blank score. Mansfield’s pass skipped off a Palisade
defender right to Rippy, who had half an open net to fire into.

That was one of several teammwork-heavy plays that propelled the Demons (1-2
overall, 1-1 in Class 4A Western Slope League) to their first victory of 2008.

“We needed that,” said Glenwood coach Bryan Stoltzfus, whose team was making its
first appearance of the year at Stubler Memorial Field. “Our passing was key. The first two games we played, there was a lot of kick and runs when we should be getting
three or four passes. Our give-and-goes were working (today).”

The Demons’ passing game continued to flourish in the second half.

A couple of forward headers led to an easy goal for Kendall Strautman 4:30 in as,
deep in Palisade’s zone, Bryttnie Evans directed the ball forward to Chelsea Vallario,
who knocked it ahead to Strautman for a one-on-one strike.

Roughly four minutes later, Vallario lofted a well-placed cross to Abbe Vincent from
the right corner. A wide-open Vincent, positioned in the center of the 18-yard box,
knocked the ball down with her body and lasered in an easy goal.

Palisade keeper Amelia Davis kept plenty busy, stopping 12 of the 15 shots on goal
she faced. Not bad, considering the ball resided almost exclusively on her side of the
field.

“I was pretty pleased with our defense, but they pressured our goalie a little more
than I liked,” said Bulldogs coach Luann Ehlers, whose team dropped to 2-1-2 both
overall and in the 4A WSL. “We just need to work on getting some offensive
opportunities.”