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Aspen girls lacrosse cruises against Telluride

Jon Maletz
The Aspen Times
Aspen, CO Colorado
Aspen senior, Sydney Mondry is aided by two of her teammates, juniors Elli Parker (left) and Lucy Marolt (right) in Friday's home match against Telluride.
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ASPEN – Little more than 60 seconds into Friday’s game, Aspen’s Delaney Conner cradled the ball, drove past two Telluride defenders with relative ease and went low for the score.

The scene would become a familiar one.

The Skiers struck with four goals in the game’s first 3 minutes, eight in the opening half and dominated throughout in a 17-0 victory over the Miners, who are playing their first season as a varsity program.



“I couldn’t ask for anything better than to grow our league and grow our conference. It just takes time to kind of get established,” said Aspen head coach Meredith Elwell Sauder, whose squad now is 2-0 in its second varsity campaign.

It took the Skiers mere moments to establish themselves on this afternoon. Conner and Mary Beasley each scored twice in the opening minutes, helping Aspen develop an early cushion.




Teammate Olivia Porcaro, who paced the Skiers with six goals in a season-opening rout of Fruita Monument, found the net soon after; the junior patiently jogged around the perimeter of the Telluride defense, spotted a seam and scored on an athletic wrap-around.

Porcaro led all players with four goals.

“You can work on a ton of things in a game like this,” Elwell Sauder said. “Like possessing on the attack. There are times when you need to possess the ball, like when you’re up by one with 5 minutes in the game. It’s a tough thing to do. … This was a good opportunity for a lot of girls to get comfortable out there on the field.”

Aspen looked comfortable all afternoon. Eight different players scored goals for the Skiers, who steadily pulled away in the second half.

Conner and Kylie Davis finished with three goals apiece, Beasley and Isabelle Woodrow scored twice and Allie Garrett, Kelly Tuck and Shannon Turbidy each added one.

Aspen has outscored opponents, 32-7, in two games this season. It host the Miners again at 10 a.m. Saturday.

“The kids looked great. They picked up right where they left off against Fruita, which was on a very high note,” Elwell Sauder said. “It was fun to see kids build their confidence, and give different kids opportunities to work on the things they need to work on.”

jmaletz@aspentimes.com

Aspen head coach Mike Goerne said his young squad is getting a lot of on-the-job experience these days. It did not translate into a win Friday against visiting Battle Mountain, however.

The Huskies jumped out to a 4-1 lead after the first half and were never seriously tested in a 9-3 victory that dropped the Skiers to 1-1.

“I’d say we didn’t take care of the little things,” Goerne said. “We lost the ground-ball battle. In lacrosse, winning those ground balls is key because it gets you more possessions. That was where we got beat today.

“We started out the game a little slowly and got caught on our heels. They had a good goalie that made some early saves. That kept momentum on their side.”

The Skiers tried to turn the tide in the second half. They mounted a rally to pull to within three at 6-3 early in the fourth quarter. The Huskies responded with two quick scores, however, to restore order and put the game out of reach.

Colter Robinson, Brendan Wagner and Lawson Pisani scored for Aspen, which hosts Steamboat Springs at noon today.

“We started making a comeback, but they made a couple saves and didn’t allow us to close the gap,” Goerne said. “If these kids have a good memory and start to do the small things better each time out, we could surprise ourselves.”