Glenwood Springs falls to clicking Battle Mountain

Huskies duo leads 3-1 win over Demons

Click to Enlarge Browse and Buy Post Independent Photos Glenwood Springs’ Bryttnie Evans, left, and Battle Mountain’s Marisa Ammaturo fight for the ball during the Demon-Huskie Class 4A Western Slope League game on Tuesday in Edwards. Preston Utley | Vail Daily

By Chris Freud
Vail Correspondent
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
April 9, 2008

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EDWARDS, Colorado — Lightning might be striking twice.

Battle Mountain girls soccer had the dynamic duo for the last three years with Kelsey Sanders and Julia Burnett, superb talents who seemed to operate on the same wavelength. They scored 125 goals in their tenure with the Huskies.

Enter Marisa Ammaturo and Lizzie Seibert. These Huskie sophomores seem to have a similar link. Ammaturo scored the first goal and then fed Seibert twice, lifting Battle Mountain to a 3-1 win over Glenwood Springs Tuesday at Freedom Park in Edwards.

“We’re like spaghetti and meatballs,” Ammaturo said. After Seibert gave her a quizzical look, Ammaturo added, “I’m Italian, OK?”

“I try to separate myself from the rest of my crowd and look at Marisa and see where she’s looking,” Seibert said. “Usually, it’s just there. She usually hits it in the right spot all the time.”

“Her head’s like a magnet,” Ammaturo said.

Whether it’s because they’ve played together since Berry Creek Middle School and in club or one subscribes to the theory of magnetism, the two are clicking. Ammaturo has a team-high nine goals and eight assists in seven games, while Seibert is sitting on eight and four, respectively.

The Huskies came out early, striking in the second minute on a nice feed from Emily LyBarger to Ammaturo, who went to the left side for an early 1-0 lead.

The Huskies (5-0 in the 4A Western Slope League, 6-0 overall) played in Glenwood’s end for most of the first 40 minutes, getting several booming corner kicks from Ammaturo. Just as Huskies assistant coach Jen Davin had been mentioning to Cope that Ammaturo had been belting corners in warm-ups, the sophomore connection clicked. Ammaturo crushed it into the box, and Seibert got a leg on it.

Midway through the second half, the two did it again, with Seibert getting the header this time. Meanwhile after a stop-and-start first half, the visiting Demons started to threaten.

The pressure bore fruit when Glenwood’s Kendall Strautman broke in alone in the Huskies’ end. Battle Mountain goalie Maddy Trtanj made a good save on Strautman’s first shot, but had no chance on the second.

“I was definitely pleased with the second half,” Glenwood coach Bryan Stoltzfus. “The first half, I was pretty much ticked the whole half. At halftime, I kind of erupted on them a little bit. I think they got the picture and decided to come out and play hard, and it showed. We got a goal, and that’s OK, but we’ve got to start beating teams like this. We’re getting closer to that.”

The Demons (2-2 WSL, 3-2 overall) have Steamboat Springs at home Thursday at 4 p.m. Glenwood lost to the Sailors in overtime up in Steamboat, so the Demons will be motivated.

“We’re excited to play,” Stoltzfus said. “We’ve had two or three of our games postponed, our home games. We always play Steamboat tough at home no matter what the records are.”