Indians suffer heartbreaking loss to Eagle Valley

MONTROSE—The Montrose Indians soccer season came to a crashing halt Tuesday afternoon during a blustery first round playoff game. 

Montrose fought tooth-and-nail with the Eagle Valley Devils through 96 minutes but couldn’t find the back of the net, despite their 10 shots on goal.

It was a Devils player who shot a reflected ball with three minutes to go, during the first overtime, to give Eagle Valley the 3-2 victory.

“I thought we played well enough to win,” MHS head coach Jim Lewis said. “We just had some plays in front of the box today that we couldn’t clear out.”

Lewis was referring to Eagle Valley’s two scores that both came after the ball ricocheted off a couple of Montrose defenders and allowed the Devils to get a second chance shot at the goal.

The Indians started off the game possessing the ball well and making crisp passes, which eventually led them to score first. It was senior defender Ricky Zatarain who found an open Eliseo Gomez, who in turn fired a shot through the net 3 minutes into the first half. Giving the Indians a 1-0 lead.

That lead would only hold up for 13 minutes before an Eagle Valley player responded and tied the game at 1-1, which would eventually be the score at halftime.

“Throughout that first half we came out and established good control of the ball,” Lewis said. “We took quite a few shots on goal, but unfortunately they didn’t fall for us.”

When the second half began, the Indians didn’t waste anytime trying to reestablish their lead. Less than two minutes into the half, it was senior forward Shane Guenther who tipped the ball through the net to regain the lead 2-1. Guenther was assisted on the play by Gomez.

Through most of the second half the Indians were in complete control of the ball, something that Lewis said was a main objective— to control the ball on both sides of the field.

But despite controlling the ball, the Indians did display some flaws.

“I think we left them (Eagle Valley) in the game a lot longer then we should’ve,” Lewis said. “We just had two many balls that we should’ve cleaned up and they took advantage of that. I give Eagle Valley a lot of credit for not giving up on those balls.”

One of those balls came in the 70th minute, with the Indians leading 2-1 and clearly at an advantage to win the game with only 10 minutes left in regulation. But again, with the Indians struggling to clear the ball away from their goal, it was an Eagle Valley player who took advantage and scored to tie the game at 2-2.

With the game on the line in overtime, an Eagle Valley player took advantage of a loose ball and in the 12th minute of overtime, the Indian soccer players saw their season come to a close.

“I’m just really proud of these kids, they had an outstanding season,” Lewis said. “Any loss is tough, but for these seniors it going to be even tougher knowing that their career as an Indian soccer player is over.”