Basalt cruises to third-straight win

Basalt senior captain Cy Eaton scored a hat trick as the Longhorns won their third-straight game Thursday afternoon 5-0 over Roaring Fork at the BHS field.Center midfielder Eaton, Basalt’s leading scorer with seven goals in four games this season, scored twice in the first half as Basalt gained a 3-0 advantage. Junior striker Felipe Sanchez, Basalt’s leading scorer last season with 16 goals, scored his first goal of the season on a penalty kick in the first half and assisted on two of Eaton’s goals.Basalt’s attack kept the ball – and pressure – in the Roaring Fork zone for much of the game. Basalt’s junior goalie Jamie Wirkler saw little action in tallying his second shutout of the young 2004 season.Basalt improved to 2-0 in Class 3A Western Slope League play and 3-1 overall. Roaring Fork dropped to 0-1 in league play and 0-4 overall.

“I thought we played pretty decent passingwise,” said Basalt coach Erik Streff, “but there was also some sloppy play on both sides and, for us, maybe the intensity wasn’t all there all the time.”Basalt sophomore Trevor Brown had a goal and an assist, and sophomore Ryan Zubizaretta assisted on Brown’s goal, the fifth of the game. Roaring Fork senior Miguel Montdragon played the first half in goal, allowing three scores, though he showed no fear in abandoning the net, either. Midway through the first half, trailing 2-nil, Montdragon took matters into his own hands by dribbling out beyond midfield after a save, leaving several wide-eyed Basalt players in his wake before actually passing.The strategy didn’t work, but it didn’t backfire either. However, in the second half, Roaring Fork came out with Montdragon at striker and Omar Garcia, a sophomore, in goal.

The game pitted the disciplined, passing style of the Longhorns against the freewheeling athleticism of Roaring Fork, a team that in recent history has struggled retaining coaches as well as players and playing styles. Basalt, meanwhile, is seeking its fourth consecutive Class 3A WSL title under coach Streff and has high hopes for the state tournament this season.”We have a lot of talent,” said Chris “Woodsie” Woods, the veteran coach of the Basalt girls soccer team and first-year coach of the Roaring Fork boys. “It’s just getting it all together that we’re working on.”We looked good in patches, but against Basalt – a team that is going to be something when they get their passes to stick – we’re a little overmatched at present,” Woods continued.Roaring Fork and Basalt play host to nonleague opponent Pagosa Springs tonight and Saturday.

Roaring Fork kicks off with Pagosa at 6 p.m. tonight in Carbondale; on Saturday, kickoff is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the BHS field.Said Basalt senior stopper Brett Guglielmo, “We’re expecting a good team. We’ve got to come out and play hard, but we really don’t even know what they’re like.”As such, the Basalt team plans to be in Carbondale for the Roaring Fork-Pagosa Springs game tonight.”We’ll see what we can see,” said Guglielmo, the Basalt co-captain along with Eaton.