Quick goals help Moffat County beat Rifle
Tuesday's game rescheduled
Moffat County's home game vs. Roaring Fork on Tuesday was rescheduled to April 28 with the varsity at 4 p.m. and JV afterward.
With a better finishing touch than it has displayed in recent weeks, Moffat County girls soccer beat Rifle to win its third straight game.
The Bulldogs have created plenty of offensive opportunities in their past several contests but have not put as many points on the scoreboard as they would have hoped. During Monday’s game with the Bears in Craig, more chances ended up in the back of the net for a 6-0 win.
It began minutes into the game, when Jazmine Swindler got her head on a corner kick and flicked it into the far corner of the goal to give the Bulldogs a lead. From there, they owned most of the possessions in the first half and won a steady stream of corners to keep the Rifle defense busy.
Allie Ehlers made it 2-0 when she let a shot go from outside the penalty area, which took a short hop near the goal line that fooled Kailee Cordova. Late in the half, Ehlers curled a corner near the goal, which bounced off a Rifle defender and into the net.
“All in all, that was a good team win,” coach Harry Tripp said. “We cleaned up our passing and did a lot of things better than on Saturday (at Colorado Rocky Mountain School) that we knew we needed to improve on.”
Meanwhile, the Bears’ offense was dealing with struggles similar to what the Bulldogs are recovering from at the moment. Rifle has scored just two goals this season but broke away or counter-attacked effectively throughout Monday’s game and was unable to get the final touch on the ball to beat Moffat’s defense and get on the board.
“It was a frustrating game because of all the opportunities we had,” Rifle coach Rich Carter said. “On the other hand, it was exciting that we were able to create that many opportunities. We played a lot of good offense today but didn’t have the feet to finish.”
In the second half, Delaney Baker moved from goalie to an attacking midfield position and made the most of her time on offense. The junior scored in the opening minute of the second half and then again late in the game when she took a cross and split three Rifle defenders to get into the space and score.
Brittany Walker had the final goal of the game when she waited on a cross from Swindler and pushed it the final few feet across the line to score.
“The score doesn’t show it, but we played good soccer today,” Carter said. “It just would’ve been great to score.”
Moffat County has won three in a row to get back to 5-5 on the season and in the playoff race for 3A Region 3. The Bulldogs take on Aspen on Thursday, in an important league game for their postseason hopes.
“We did so many things better, I hope we come out with confidence tomorrow,” Tripp said. “We’re coming together as a team and having fun at the right time.”
Contact Nate Waggenspack at 970-875-1795 or nwaggenspack@CraigDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @CDP_Sports.
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