Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
The offense is going to come for the Aspen High School girls soccer team. After going three halves without a goal to start the season, the Skiers finally found the back of the net in a 2-0 win over visiting Delta on Saturday on the snow-entombed AHS turf.
“It felt good. I feel like we were really working together well as a team and I feel like a lot of people are going to score this season,” AHS sophomore Kelley Francis said. “I feel like we have a lot harder of a schedule this year and the goals come when the goals come.”
It was Francis, who broke the program’s single-season scoring mark as a freshman last spring, who finally got on the board with a goal less than two minutes into the second half against Delta (0-2). Sophomore Edie Sherlock scored the second via a free kick later in the half, which was mostly dominated by the AHS offense.
As efficient as the offense was at times, some missed shots and hesitant decision-making certainly cost the Skiers a few more goals.
“It just boiled down to frustration,” AHS coach John Gillies said. “We passed well at the end. It took us 70 minutes to get to what I know they are capable of doing. We made them look good in parts.”
However, Gillies and the team had little to complain about overall. It was only Aspen’s second game of the season after a 4-0 loss at Class 5A Grand Junction on Tuesday. The Skiers, ranked No. 4 in 3A in the preseason CHSAANow.com poll, were playing on their relatively large field for the first time and the timing wasn’t quite there.
“I was happy with the formation and our structure on the field,” Gillies said. “We were holding it together well.”
For a team that returned the majority of its roster after last year’s run to the 3A state semifinals, it doesn’t seem overly concerned this early in the season.
“We have some really great girls up top. We have Emily Brenninger and Clara Maxwell, and I think we really are starting to get our movement together,” Francis said. “We are hungry now and we really want to prove we can beat good teams. We really want to keep up the No. 4 (ranking) and we want to go as far as we did last year, and even further.”
Now 1-1 (1-0 Western Slope League), the Skiers will play twice more before spring break. Aspen is set to travel to Roaring Fork on Tuesday in a non-league game (they’ll play again April 25 in a league contest), and then will play Thursday at Class 4A Steamboat Springs.
Basalt girls soccer season underway
The Basalt High School girls soccer team got its season going over the weekend. Led by first-year coach Kate McBride, the Longhorns lost to powerhouse Kent Denver on Friday, 7-0. Kent is preseason No. 2 in 3A. Saturday, Basalt lost to preseason No. 10 DSST: Stapleton, 4-2. The Longhorns had originally been scheduled to open its season at home against Roaring Fork last week, but had to postpone that game due to field conditions.
The current schedule doesn’t have Basalt playing again until April 4, after spring break, with a trip to Coal Ridge. Although, the spring schedules have a tendency to change rather quickly.
acolbert@aspentimes.com