Eli Pace / epace@skyhinews.com
Middle Park boys soccer defeated Sheridan 4-2 on Wednesday in Denver. The victory on the road follows a 5-1 home win over Lake County on Saturday.
The Panthers got on the scoreboard in the 20th minute when senior Jaime Rios stole the ball and bent a shot around the goal keeper. Then in the 29th minute, Gustavo Galaviz sent a pass to sophomore Adrian Rios, who scored Middle Park’s second goal.
“Adrian put a lot of pressure on the Sheridan defense and it frustrated them,” said coach Dane Ruttenberg as he reported the game results.
Sheridan had a chance to score late in the half during a breakaway on what looked to be an open net. However, senior Vinny Troccoli made a strong slide tackle and blocked the shot.
“Vinny’s play was a game-changer,” said Ruttenberg, explaining going into halftime up 2-0 instead of 2-1 made a huge difference.
Sophomore Cade Jones slipped a pass to junior Gustavo Galaviz for the Panther’s first goal in the second half before Seth Holestine intercepted a pass, dribbled up the pitch and passed to Jaime Rios, who scored his second goal of the night.
“The guys demonstrated incredible resiliency,” Ruttenberg said. “There were some challenges that were completely out of the boys’ control, and they didn’t let that adversity get to them.”
The Panthers next game will be at 4 p.m. Wednesday at home.
MPHS sophomore 29th at Battle Mountain invite
Middle Park’s cross country teams competed Saturday at the Battle Mountain Husky Invitation in Minturn.
The girls took 12th place as a team, led by sophomore Leah Cormican, who finished the 5,000 meter race in 29th place at 23 minutes, 13 seconds. She was followed by teammates Madison Trail (23:32), Sylvia Brower (25:03), Cameryn Friesen (26:50), Emily Lanternmans (30:07) and Mia Stuart (31:56).
In the boys race, junior Ethan Callarman turned in the Panthers’ top performance at 20:16 to finish 65th while the boys took 17th as a team. Rounding out the Panthers runners were Daniel Juricek (21:16), Dylan Cormican (22:41), Calvin Ciccarelli (23:17) and Jonah McKnight (25:29).
Middle Park returns to cross country action Saturday morning at the West Grand Invitational in Kremmling.