{"id":2451055,"date":"2019-11-13T21:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T04:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/roaring-fork-boys-soccer-team-bounces-back-to-advance-to-first-state-championship\/"},"modified":"2019-11-13T21:40:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T04:40:00","slug":"roaring-fork-boys-soccer-team-bounces-back-to-advance-to-first-state-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/roaring-fork-boys-soccer-team-bounces-back-to-advance-to-first-state-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Roaring Fork boys soccer team bounces back to advance to first state championship"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The Roaring Fork Rams battle Salida Wednesday evening in the 3A state soccer semifinal game at All City Stadium in Denver. The Rams won 2-1 to advance to the state championship game Saturday.<\/strong>
Jade Bath\/courtesy photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

DENVER \u2014 As time dwindled in the second half, the Roaring Fork High School boys soccer team had a strong sense of deja vu.<\/p>\n

The fifth-seeded Rams were tied at 0 with No. 1 Salida in the Class 3A state semifinals Wednesday night, and it looked like they were heading to overtime.<\/p>\n

In the same round of the state championships last year, Roaring Fork battled to a shootout but fell 2-1, ending its season.<\/p>\n

But the narrative changed dramatically this time around at All City Stadium.<\/p>\n

The Rams came from behind late in the second half to tie the game. And in overtime, they were finally victorious.<\/p>\n

Roaring Fork (15-2-1 overall) scored with 3 minutes, 32 seconds left in the extra period to upset the top seed and secure their first bid to the championship game in school history.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo tell you the truth, I was kind of consigning to another semifinal exit,\u201d coach Nick Forbes said. \u201cAnd then Ross (Barlow) pulls out a special moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

With 7:14 remaining in regulation, Salida (17-1-1) deflated the Rams\u2019 hopes as junior Kai Brown scored on a wide open shot to take a 1-0 lead.<\/p>\n

RF junior goalkeeper Noah Wheeless had come out of the goal to help defend, but Brown slipped by him and sailed the ball into the net.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce they scored I felt the whole team just come down,\u201d said Wheeless, who had five saves on the night. \u201cI felt terrible. I was like \u2018that was my fault\u2019 and everyone (said) \u2018no, we\u2019re a team. We\u2019re gonna win and we\u2019re gonna lose together.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then that magic just happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rams began to push hard on offense and had a couple of opportunities, but they couldn\u2019t capitalize. Then, sophomore Barlow was left open in the back post and he slipped the ball past the goalie into the right corner with 1:20 left to tie the game at 1.<\/p>\n

As the overtime period began, both sides played with urgency to start, but Barlow said he and his teammates began to slow down and play smarter.<\/p>\n

Roaring Fork started controlling the ball and opened up a couple shots on goal. After a shot by sophomore Jose Mercado Jr. missed, the Rams got a corner kick. While battling for the ball, a Salida player committed a penalty right outside the net.<\/p>\n

Barlow got set up for the penalty kick in the box and with 3:32 left on the clock, he knocked the ball into the left corner for the win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just took a couple deep breaths before that PK and put it in,\u201d Barlow said.<\/p>\n

Now, despite playing in their first championship game, the Rams are feeling confident, especially since they have only allowed one goal in the postseason and took 14 shots on goal against Salida.<\/p>\n

Roaring Fork will take on defending 3A state champs Kent Denver \u2014 6-1 winners over Atlas Preparatory School in the night cap Wednesday \u2014 at 11 a.m. Saturday at Dick\u2019s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think our defensive collectiveness is really strong, and you can see it when we play,\u201d Forbes said. \u201cThey kind of had a little dip right at the end of the season, (but) right now they\u2019re finding their best form and that\u2019s all you can ask for as a coach is (to) find it when it matters.\u201d<\/p>\n

sports@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Roaring Fork Rams battle Salida Wednesday evening in the 3A state soccer semifinal game at All City Stadium in Denver. The Rams won 2-1 to advance to the state championship game Saturday.Jade Bath\/courtesy photo DENVER \u2014 As time dwindled in the second half, the Roaring Fork High School boys soccer team had a strong […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2451055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 06:39:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2451055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2451055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2451055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2451055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2451055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}