Rams Field in Carbondale resembled a snow globe for Roaring Fork High School’s second-round 3A soccer playoff game against The Academy on Tuesday.

A goal in the 15th minute by Roaring Fork senior Phillipe Huang while the visibility was still decent allowed the fifth-seeded Rams to go into keep-away mode for the rest of the game and secure the win.

“To get that goal before it got too snowy to really play serious soccer, that totally changes the game,” Roaring Fork head coach Nick Forbes said. “My message at halftime was just, it’s going to get worse and people are going to slide around, so just be smart and try not to have any lapses or miss kicks or anything that can give them a chance.”

Huang’s goal emerged from a mini traffic jam inside the 6, when he swooped in from the left to take a pass from junior Delano Crooks and knocked it past Wildcats keeper Braydon Depew.

“I got a fast, incredible pass from (Crooks), and I knew I could get to it and had an opening,” said Huang, who is new to the Rams team this season.

“This is an incredible team and I enjoy playing with them, and our connection to each other is the best,” he said.

Huang nearly scored again a couple of possessions later, but the insurance wasn’t needed. The Academy, playing as 12th seed in 32-team tournament, had its chances to score, including in the eighth minute of play when a shot careened off the crossbar. Another shot off a corner kick in the 48th minute also sailed high for the Wildcats.

By then, it was near whiteout conditions and play at times looked more like a sloppy rugby game.

The win for the Rams sets up a quarterfinal match against a familiar opponent, the fourth-seeded Rifle Bears, who won their second-round game Tuesday at home, 3-0 over No. 13 Aurora West Prep. The Rams-Bears game is to be played Saturday in Rifle, at a time to be determined.

Even though Rifle entered the tournament with the better record (now 14-2-1) and the higher seed, the Rams (12-3-2) won the 3A Western Slope League, in part by virtue of a 2-1 win at Rifle on Sept. 12.

Forbes said his team knows the deal.

“We beat them once at their own place at the beginning of the season, and so the rationale going in is we know we can do this if we play our game,” he said.