Coal Ridge ties Aspen on snowy field

Weird weather puts an early end to 3A girls soccer game

By Jeff Caspersen
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
April 8, 2008

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PEACH VALLEY, Colorado — Just when things got interesting, Mother Nature intervened.

Once bulky snowflakes began blanketing Coal Ridge’s field with about 20 minutes remaining in Monday’s girls soccer game between the Titans and visiting Aspen, the teams were finally finding a little offensive rhythm on a field already soggy from intermittent snow and rain.

Coal Ridge’s Chelsie Ryan broke a scoreless tie, slide-kicking in a goal with 11:34 left on the clock and, less than 3 minutes later, Aspen’s Kate Moyer drove home a free-kick assist from Maggie Melberg to knot the game.

That would be all, as the snow continued to pile up and the officials ruled, with just over 2 minutes to go, that conditions were too dangerous to play further. The game ended in a 1-all draw.

It was the first Class 3A Western Slope League non-win for both teams, and neither Coal Ridge coach Brian Blair nor the Aspen girls were too thrilled about leaving with a tie.

“It’s tough, because I can’t lie to them and tell them the tie is how the outcome should have been,” said Blair, whose team moved to 4-2-1 overall and to 2-0-1 in league. “We played well and got that goal real late. At that point, you’re in survival mode and you really have to try to push it to the offensive end and hold it there. We kind of played on the defensive end the whole time and that’s just asking for disaster.”

Said Aspen coach Jon Gillies, whose team is now 4-0-1 in league and 5-1-1 overall: “(Our girls showed) great ambition, great heart. They knew they had to get a result up here today, of some sort. … The girls were disappointed the game got called. They felt like they could take it and win it just through their passion and momentum.”

Though it took them a while to break through for a goal, most of the game’s scoring threats belonged to Coal Ridge — included two mid-range bombs that struck the crossbar, one by Kourtney Mitchell and another by Audrey Asplund.

Aspen goalkeeper Lindsey Anderson did her part in keeping the Titans off the board, racking up nine saves and leaving the box several times to disrupt breakaway scoring chances.

The one shot she didn’t wrap up is the one that gave Coal Ridge the lead, and that was a bullet off the foot of Mitchell. Anderson made that save but lost grip of the ball. Ryan took advantage.

“She jumped on it and it popped out of her hands,” Ryan said. “I just went for it. I couldn’t have done it without Kourtney.”

Surrendering the goal seemed to ignite Aspen’s drive. The Skiers began putting shots on goal and clicking offensively before nailing the equalizer.

All in all, it was an odd day, particularly weather-wise. The game opened under a light snow shower, but that gave way to clear skies for the middle portion of the contest. And that was just about on par with how the rest of the day went in Peach Valley, Blair noted.

“It was weird weather,” he said. “It started out with hail, then we had a snowstorm, and then we had dry weather. The field dried almost all of the way off and then we had a snowstorm that was two times as bad as the first one. That’s Colorado for you, at least on the Western Slope.”