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rsederquist@vaildaily.com
One reason Battle Mountain worked hard all year for the No. 2 seed was to receive home field advantage through the first three rounds of the 4A state soccer playoffs. On Wednesday night, however, one of their biggest mountain upper hands — weather — forced them to travel down valley and host No. 18 Montrose at Eagle Valley High School.
“I have to thank Eagle Valley. They were really gracious to let us on their field and scramble at the last minute to get everything set up,” said head coach Dave Cope, who was walking across ice chunks and partially frozen puddles on his home turf in Edwards with CHSAA referees and the Montrose coaches 90 minutes before game time when the call was made to travel to his rival’s clear field. While the move to Gypsum was welcomed, Cope’s light-hearted sense of humor indicated he understood the potential irony.
“Worst case scenario, you’d hate for your season to end on Eagle Valley’s field after playing all year for home field advantage,” he said with a chuckle.
Fortunately, the Huskies didn’t let that happen. Cope’s crew cruised to a 4-0 victory to advance to Saturday’s 4A quarterfinals.
“I was really pleased with how we reacted,” the coach said.
The Huskies seemed to be on their heels in the first few minutes until Jakob Methvin made a long throw to Grey Glowacki, who got the home team on the board first with a nice header.
“That goal was crucial and it sort of settled us down,” Cope said. “And we really started playing well.”
Goalie Ezequiel Alvarez assisted Methvin, who dribbled past a sea of Montrose defenders before slotting a shot low into the far corner for the 2-0 lead. Later, Glowacki launched a beautiful through-ball to Emilio Paulon, who sent the defending state champions into halftime with a 3-0 advantage.
“He’s having a great playoffs,” Cope said of Paulon, who has scored off the bench in both playoff games. “That’s a big factor in the playoffs. If you have players contributing outside the starting lineup, that’s huge — as we saw with Cooper (Skidmore) scoring in the final (last year).”
Paulon’s more direct style provides a neat contrast to the program veterans, most of whom are trained in possession, knocking the ball around and patiently waiting to strike. “He’s a good spark,” Cope said of the senior, who had a second goal called off at the end of the game because it came just after the buzzer.
In the first 10 minutes of the second half, Charlie Strauch was fouled in the box; Carlos Gardea punched home the penalty kick for the 4-0 final. With the large lead, Cope was able to get all his seniors on the field for an extended period of time — and offer his starters some extra rest as the temperatures dropped. Anthony Raudales stepped into the net for the final 20 minutes to team up for the shutout with Alvarez.
“They managed the game really well with distribution, through-balls and free kicks,” Cope said of his goalie tandem.
Battle Mountain awaits the winner of No. 7 Cheyenne Mountain — whom the Huskies beat 3-1 on Sept. 20 — and No. 10 Regis Groff. That game was scheduled for Thursday night, with the victor traveling to Edwards on Saturday. Once again, however, weather is exerting some influence. CHSAA announced weather-related schedule changes for several postseason tournaments on Thursday morning. Later in the afternoon, Battle Mountain athletic director Bobby Ecker notified the Vail Daily that the quarterfinal game has been moved to Monday at 4 p.m.
“I’m glad our game is in the books already, said Cope, who relishes the wintry confines of the Huskies’ stadium this time of year. “We always say, ‘put them on a bus and bring them to us.’”
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