Grizzlies Come Close but Fall hort Over the Week

The Adams State men’s soccer team did well to compete with the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs this past Tuesday on the Mountain Lion’s home field, but were unable to get the ball in the back of the net. The Mountain Lions struck early on in the game, getting a goal from Sophomore Riley Gallagher in the 9th minute of play. The score would remain the same throughout the next half and through the second half.

The Grizzlies, who played the Mountain Lions earlier with a 3-0 loss, put up a much better fight the second time around. They played one of their best games this season. Freshman Redshirt Jarod Thomas had an impressive 11 saves, while Sophomore Joseph Jallow led the Grizzlies’ offense with seven shots. The Grizzly defense did well to hold off the Mountain Lions, who had nine off sides called against them. The loss puts the Grizzlies at a record of 0-9-3 on their first ever season.

The Grizzlies then came home for their final game of the season against Westminster (Utah) College at noon this Sunday at Murphy Field. It was a very intense, fast paced game as the Grizzlies battled the Griffins to a 2-1 double overtime Westminster win. Westminster had an impressive 44 total shots in the match but was only able to capitalize on two of those attempts.

The Grizzlies struck first in the match, getting a penalty kick goal from Jesse Spokane in the 61^st minute of play. They then had to go a man down about 7 minutes later, when Sophomore Peter Freeman was sent off the field for pushing a Griffin player down. The game continued to be extremely physical and a total of 10 yellow cards were given out, 5 to each team.

The Griffins came back with the tying goal with only five minutes remaining in the game, with a header goal from Jeff Gardner. The game then went into double overtime where the Griffins’ Tysen Gehring scored the game winner with only 3:17 left in the second overtime. The game was, though physically brutal and quite dirty, very entertaining and fast paced with many counter attacks from both teams. Grizzly goal keeper Jarod Thomas made multiple great saves, totaling 15 for the day, a new school record. One of these saves helped to keep the game going as he saved a penalty kick taken by Isaac Green in the first half.

Less than five minutes after Thomas’ save, the Grizzlies nearly capitalized on a Bryan Heath shot attempt but were thwarted by Griffins keeper Val Campbell. With the score tied at the half the Grizzlies were finally able to put a point on the board when Griffin Jesse Blais was called for a hand ball inside the penalty area. Dunbar, who has three goals this season, took full advantage of Blais’ mistake and put the Grizzlies on top. Thomas then came into play, making a great save off a shot taken by Green that bent around the Grizzly wall and to the right side of the net where Thomas dove to reject it. Thomas’ heroics were then thwarted when Gardner headed in a Justin Solomon cross.

The Grizzlies had chances of their own, one in specific happened mid-way through the first overtime when Joseph Jallow received a through ball and dribbled around a defender before trying to cut the ball back, which is when the ball slid over to Heath, who took back-to-back shots that were blocked by Griffin defenders. The pressure continued into the second overtime which was controlled mostly by the Griffins, who were finally able to capitalize in the 107^th minute when Gehrig volleyed in a Green free kick and gave the Griffins the overtime victory. The loss put the Grizzlies at a final record of 0-10-3 in their first ever season.