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Sept. 21, 1999 By Jim Thomas On their first road trip of the season, the Montezuma-Cortez High School varsity boys soccer team could hardly buy a goal. "No scoring," MCHS coach Jim Schulz said. "We did not score at all. We got some opportunities but we could not get the ball into the net. That's now three games in a row (going back to a 1-0 loss to Central on Sept. 11) that we've had trouble scoring." The Panthers visited Grand Junction High on Saturday, Sept. 18, and fell 3-0. "Although the score doesn't really show it, they beat us bad. They (Tigers) moved the ball well on us. We did not matchup well against them," he added. The Tigers scored two goals in the first half and one in the second. Cortez got only a few chances at the goal. The Panthers played at Palisade on Friday, Sept. 17, and lost 2-1. Palisade scored at about the five-minute mark for a 1-0 lead. Cortez came back when Devon Robb made a nice pass to Wade Newman for a goal. The Bulldogs scored the only goal in the second half and that's all they would need. "They (Bulldogs) played boot ball. They kicked the ball hard up and down the field and hoped they would get a bad bounce. They did several times. They seemed to get all the breaks," Schulz added. It used to be when Grand Junction area boys soccer teams would come into Cortez they would leave with easy victories. Those times have certainly changed. The Panthers defeated a good Fruita-Monument 1-0 Sept. 10. Although they lost 1-0 to Grand Junction Central, the Panthers outplayed the Warriors for most of the game with the exception of a lucky 30-yard shot which managed to float into the goal for the only score of the game. In the game against the Wildcats, it took the Panthers a while to get going but once they did, they dominated. But it was really a tale of two halves, though, as the Panthers stood around, did not communicate with each other, and they let Fruita dictate the tempo of the game in the first half. At the 13-minute mark in the first half, Fruita's Terry Klumker made a goal off an indirect kick. The Panthers had a low level of play. Fruita dominated the play by taking shot after shot on goal. Cortez finally got its offense going but could not get a shot off a the 22-minute mark. Finally, Cortez made a nice steal and got off a shot about a minute later. Cortez missed several other opportunities. The Panthers were not hustling and seemed to be waiting for something to happen. "In the first half I had not seen them play that poorly in a long, long time. I had to get very verbal with them at the half," Schulz remarked. "They decided to pick up the pace and play some soccer in the second half." It wasn't long into the second half before the Panthers would score. Within the first minute, Jeff Yarbrough headed in a shot as the Wildcat goalie misjudged it. While Fruita certainly exhibited superior passing and dribbling skills, the Panthers also showed they could move the ball effectively on offense and play pretty good defense. Cortez finally took several shots on goal and kept the ball in the attacking half of the field. The Panthers missed two shots in a row at the 27-minute mark. At about the 30-minute mark, Josh Knapp spun and kicked in a shot on an open goal. From that point, Fruita made a couple more shot attempts, but missing both times. The Panthers managed to hang for the Southwestern League win. "Our tempo picked way up the second half. In the second half, we played the type of soccer that we are capable of playing. We exhibited good change of field and we kept the pressure on them. We started hustling and we were getting the shots," Schulz added. On Sept. 11, the Warriors scored at the 30-minute mark in the first half with a 30-yard shot which floated over the head of goalie Joey Wynes. "It was from a long ways out and it was just a very lucky shot," he said. "We were definitely the stronger team." The Panthers had control of the ball through most of the game. Schulz estimated his team had the ball 60 to 65 minutes of the 80 minutes. After the Warriors scored, they packed their half of the field. Cortez tried to penetrate from many different angles. They tried to push the ball up the middle and up the wings for shots but could not penetrate the Warrior defense. "We tried every combination possible. We did everything we could but we could not stop them. I'm not sure if they were very confident with their offense. But they certainly concentrated on defense," he added. |
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