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Demons blister Palisade, 7-2

Joel MilholmGlenwood Springs, CO Colorado
Post Independent/Kara K. Pearson
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GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colo. Some days Travis Whitman plays defense and some days he’s a striker.On Thursday, it worked out really well for the Glenwood boys soccer team that he was on offense. The sophomore scored three goals in the first half, helping lift the Demons to a 7-2 win over Palisade.”I play both (offense and defense), so this game I went up top,” Whitman said. “It felt great. We were faster than their defense. We just kept playing it forward.”Whitman netted the first goal of the game eight minutes in, when he took an assist from Sam Kaup and kicked a roller into the far side of the goal. After Ryan Young scored another goal for the Demons, Whitman struck again. His second came on an Adam Sadowski cross that he punched into the goal.

Whitman also pounced on a rebounded shot from Young that went off the left post and bounced back into the field before meeting Whitman’s foot for the last goal of the first half.For Whitman, who is playing his first year on varsity for the Demons, it was his first varsity hat trick. “Travis is fun to watch up top,” said Glenwood head coach John Mount.Between Whitman’s second and third goals, Glenwood and Palisade each added a score. Glenwood went up 4-0 with 10 minutes left in the first half when Kaup found Danny Wheler. Wheler worked to a 1-on-1 with Palisade goalie Rolando Vargus and scored on a shot that went off the left post and into the goal.Palisade got on the board with 8:10 left in the first frame when Tibor Bakos fired one in. By the time the halftime whistles blew, Glenwood was up 5-1.

“This is definitely the momentum we want,” said Mount. His team has now won two in a row. “It was good to see the offense step up and carry it today. We were able to maintain possession in the offensive zone. We were more relaxed after the third goal, things were a little more chill.”Palisade got some good chances to start the second half, but couldn’t finish them with tough Glenwood defense and good goalkeeping by Kurt Hartmann.”They were a decent team,” Mount said of Palisade. “They still had some decent runners, fast guys and tested our defense.”Sadowski scored with 16 minutes left when Gabe King passed him the ball and he sent a line drive into the net to put Glenwood up 6-1.



Then Palisade (2-2 overall, 1-1 Class 4A Western Slope League) got one. Bakos got the ball to Kyle Rassmussen, who launched a perfect shot up and over Hartmann and into the Demons’ goal, making it 6-2 with just under eight minutes remaining.”That second half was a lot better than the first half,” said Palisade head coach Drake Jandreau. “We gave up a lot of goals. You just can’t win games that way. We are not playing strong soccer right now.”Young capped off the game with his second goal, a breakaway culminating with a rocket into the back of the net. “We are getting our chemistry together after that first loss at the beginning of the year,” Whitman said. “We are starting to know where each other are and stuff.”Glenwood (2-2 overall, 2-0 WSL) will now host Steamboat Springs Saturday at 11 a.m.


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