Aspen High hockey falls to Cougars, BHS sends two wrestlers to state
Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times |
The Aspen High School hockey team knew the scoring opportunities were going to be limited against visiting Resurrection Christian Saturday, a team ranked No. 8 in the state as of the Jan. 30 CHSAANow.com poll.
The teams had only played Jan. 28, an 8-0 win for the Cougars.
“We knew we couldn’t match their physicality. We tried to be a bit more conservative and capitalize on power plays and capitalize on odd-man rushes,” AHS coach Dru Lucchesi said. “We didn’t capitalize on the scoring chances we had. We knew they’d be far and few between. We missed the net too many times.”
Resurrection Christian pulled away for the 5-0 win Saturday at Lewis Ice Arena, although the lopsided final score was largely a byproduct of a flurry of meaningless, late goals. The Skiers only trailed 1-0 entering the third period.
The loss came a night after AHS defeated Columbine 4-3 at the Aspen Ice Garden. In that game, the Skiers rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win.
“They came out hard and we had a couple turnovers they capitalized on,” Lucchesi said of Friday’s game. “It was a necessary game. We needed a win. We didn’t move up in our standings at all, but we play them again next weekend, so it’s good to have that game under our belt.”
Aspen (7-9-1 overall) has two games remaining in the regular season. The Skiers play Friday at Columbine and Saturday at Mountain Vista. Only the Columbine rematch is a conference game.
According to Lucchesi, AHS would currently be an 18 seed with the playoffs looming. The top 16 seeds receive first-round home playoff games.
“Right now we are just pulling out all the stops, trying to get as many wins as possible,” Lucchesi said. “We’ll see what happens. If we can pull away with two wins next weekend, we might sneak up into the 16 seed and host a game.”
Basalt qualifies two for state wrestling
Basalt High School wrestlers Oswaldo Morales and William Rivera, both juniors, each took fourth place at their Class 3A Region 1 tournament in Buena Vista Friday and Saturday to qualify for this week’s state tournament.
Morales took fourth in the heavyweight bracket, bouncing back from a semifinal loss to earn two wins in the consolation bracket. Rivera was fourth at 195 pounds, also losing in the semifinals before rallying for fourth.
While he didn’t qualify for state, 220-pound freshman Ernesto Lopez had a solid showing, battling to sixth place.
The state tournament will take place Thursday, Friday and Saturday at the Pepsi Center in Denver.
Aspen basketball swept by Cedaredge
The Aspen High School basketball teams fell twice Saturday on the road to Cedaredge. The boys led by 10 at halftime, but lost the third quarter 16-6 and ultimately fell 54-49. The loss drops the AHS boys to 8-9 overall. They have lost five straight.
The Aspen High girls lost 48-8 to Cedaredge, a night after falling 43-16 to Coal Ridge. The AHS girls now are 1-16 overall.
Each team has two games remaining in the regular season. The Skiers will play at Basalt on Friday and then host Roaring on Saturday.
The Longhorns were off Saturday after splitting with Grand Valley on Friday.
AHS Alpine team wraps up regular season
The Aspen High School Alpine ski team competed Friday at Beaver Creek, its final meet before going to state Feb. 23-24 in Steamboat Springs.
In the girls’ slalom, Aspen’s Estelle Sweeney led the way by taking sixth, followed by Elli Gorsuch in eighth and Pascale Augspurger in ninth. For the boys, Aspen was led by Ethan DeMoraes in sixth, followed by Reed Beidleman in eighth and Alex Ilic in ninth.
Leafs sweep Rampage
The Aspen Leafs U20 junior hockey team swept the Colorado Rampage over the weekend at Lewis Ice Arena.
With National Hockey League legends Bobby Hull and Ed Belfour in attendance Saturday, the Leafs won 6-2 over the Rampage, led by two goals from Hunter Havice.
Friday, the Leafs won 4-1 over the Rampage, with four different players scoring goals.
Aspen has only six games, played over the next four weekends, remaining in its regular season. Next up the Leafs will host the Colorado Thunderbirds for two games Feb. 17-18 and again March 10-11.
Aspen will host the first-place Pikes Peak Miners March 3-4. The Leafs currently hold second place.
