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Sluggish Skiers wake, drop Paonia Eagles

Nate Peterson

The Aspen soccer team is having trouble embodying the team concept – at least in the first half of soccer games.In a 2-0 win over Paonia Saturday, the Skiers again had numerous oppurtunities to score in the first 40 minutes, but came up with nothing. At halftime, coach Grant Sutherland gave his team nearly the same speech from Thursday when the Skiers couldn’t finish scoring runs and played Roaring Fork to a 0-0 tie at the break.Just as the speech led to results Thursday in the 4-1 win, Sutherland’s words resonated Saturday. Aspen (6-2) got goals from Stephen Buzbee and Baker Boyd in the second half in a game that wasn’t as close as the final score.Sutherland was still a little peeved after the win, however, that his team had to re-learn the same lesson. “I don’t know what it is,” Sutherland said. “They just can’t seem to get it together. I think there’s just too many kids trying to impress the parents. I think there’s a lot of pressure from the parents, and they try and do it all by themselves.”Junior striker Stephen Buzbee broke the scoreless tie 15 seconds into the second when he took a pass off the opening kickoff, then drove down and laced a shot past the Paonia goalie. Freshmen Baker Boyd scored the second goal off an assist from Buzbee 15 minutes later. “We just had chance after chance,” Sutherland said. “It’s a win, but it’s a tough time getting the result. Still, we were 3-5 at this time last year, and we’re 6-2 now.”Senior Fred Bernard started in goal for Aspen and played the entire game. Aspen next plays Tuesday at Vail Mountain School at 4 p.m.Basalt rollsThe Basalt boys soccer team improved its overall record to 7-2 Saturday with a 6-0 thrashing of non-league Pagosa Springs. The Longhorns got three goals from senior David Rosales, as well as one apiece from seniors Alex Giglio and Trevor Brown. Senior keeper Jamie Wirkler went untested for most of the game, recording just two saves.The ‘Horns next play at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School Tuesday at 4 p.m.Nate Peterson’s e-mail address is npeterson@aspentimes.com