Skiers boys lacrosse team drops Vail Mountain, feels good entering break

The Aspen High School boys lacrosse team is feeling good about itself entering spring break after Thursday’s 11-1 rout of Vail Mountain on the AHS turf.

“It’s a good win for us,” Aspen coach David Miller said. “They are a little short on players, but a win’s a win, and a win against Vail is always a good win.”

The Gore Rangers went 14-3 a season ago and were a No. 4 seed in the Class 4A state tournament, losing in the quarterfinals to No. 5 seed Conifer. Shorthanded against the Skiers on Thursday, there wasn’t much they could do to remain competitive.

The teams each had a goal in the opening seconds of play, but from there Aspen owned the contest. The Skiers led 4-1 after a period and 5-1 at halftime.

“We played a really good first period. Second period we only had one goal,” Miller said. “Would have liked to see that turned around a little bit. Our ground balls were really much improved from our previous games and I think the guys are starting to understand the program we have going on.”

The offense picked back up again in the second half, with Aspen scoring two more goals in the third quarter and four in the fourth to run away with the easy victory. Logan Soderburg had a strong performance in net for the Skiers.

The loss dropped VMS to 1-2 on the season. The Gore Rangers are scheduled to host Summit on Friday.

Aspen heads to spring break 2-1 overall. The Skiers opened the season with a 9-8 loss to Steamboat Springs before beating Montrose 14-0 last week.

While the high school team won’t have any games next week because of spring break, Miller is taking many of the players to a tournament in Arizona.

“It’s not spring break, it’s spring training,” Miller said. “It’s lacrosse probably seven hours a day. It’s good. I got 24 kids going, so it’ll be a great session.”

AHS is set to return to play on April 3 at home against Fruita Monument in a league game.

acolbert@aspentimes.com