Roaring Fork soccer advances following nail-biter with Rocky Mountain Prep

The Class 3A boys soccer state playoffs kicked off with a bang on the Western Slope, equipped with a celebratory cold front and capped with a Roaring Fork High School overtime win.

On Wednesday, the Rams hosted and beat the Rocky Mountain Prep SMART Ocelots in a 1-0 overtime nail-biter in the first round of the 3A playoffs.

Sophomore midfielder Cal Stone was the only one to find the back of the net, and once he did six minutes into the first overtime period, the final horn blew, the crowd exploded, and he sprinted down the field with his hands above his head and his teammates swarming.

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“I was just trying to do whatever I could to get us through the game,” Stone said. “Once I saw the ball bounce off their head and squirt out, it lined up perfectly for me, and I knew I had to put it in. The feeling of running down the field was incredible. I don’t really know what I was doing; it was insane.”

The Roaring Fork Valley presented the Front Range school with one of the first punishingly cold nights of the season, and the game reflected the temperature. Offense was sparse throughout the first half, and only with late-game desperation did it begin to tick up. 

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“These types of games have been the story of our season,” Rams head coach Nick Forbes said. “We’ve had a lot of games that have gone down to the wire, and it just shows this team’s resiliency.”

On paper, the game seemed to be a wash for the Rams. Roaring Fork dominated the regular season, finishing 11-3-2 and undefeated in league play with a 6-0-1 record to win the 3A Western Slope League. The impressive regular season rewarded the Rams with the fifth seed, but all that flew out the window once the opening whistle was blown on Wednesday afternoon. 

“That was a very strong and physical team,” Forbes said after the win. “Their ranking doesn’t justify how good (Rocky Mountain Prep SMART) was.”

The fifth seed is supposed to reward the better teams from the regular season with a less intense first-round match up and a home-field advantage for the first round of the playoffs, but only home-field worked in the Rams’ favor. The Ocelots, who were seeded 28th, gave the Rams a run for their money, and with the combination of a cold and physical game with no clear leader and a ref who liked the sound of his whistle, the first round of the playoffs easily could have gone in the opposite direction.

“At half and the end of regular time, the message was just to keep playing our game,” Forbes said. “I don’t think we were moving the ball fast enough, and I believe the cold contributed to that. When you don’t move the ball fast enough, it sucks the game into a more physical state, which is the game they wanted to play. Once we started moving the ball a little faster, pressure started appearing, and it finally fell for us.”

The pace of play and intensity increased as the temperature decreased, but as time ticked off the clock late in the second half, the Rams started to pull the momentum onto their side, and the big home crowd began getting louder with every scoring chance. 

Extra time was needed, but just six of the possible 30 minutes were required. The Rams carried the pressure and momentum through the short break and kept fighting until the ball found the back of the net. 

Roaring Fork pushed the ball deep and found it bounce off a defender and trickle out of bounds. The Rams set up a throw-in play, bringing their tall defenders all the way down into the box, and heaved the throw in all the way into the center as if it were a corner kick.

The play didn’t work as designed, but it worked all the same. The ball ricocheted off a defender’s head, almost working as a clear if the ball hadn’t fallen at Stone’s feet. Stone, who had missed earlier scoring chances, wouldn’t miss this open shot inside the box. The ball rocketed off his foot and slammed into the top right corner of the net, detonating the crowd and exploding in elation. 

His overtime golden goal let the Rams fight another day, which is all you can ask for in the playoffs. The win advances No. 5 Roaring Fork to the second round, where they will meet No. 12 The Academy on Tuesday.