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The boys varsity soccer team’s run in the All Conference Tournament ended abruptly last night, October 30, when they lost 0-4 against Ralston Valley. The stands were full of fans, the field was lit under the cold October sky, and when the whistle blew to mark the beginning of Fossil’s first home playoff game since 2012, it was clear that it was going to be a battle between two very skilled teams.
Starting off the game, Fossil’s offense, attacked Ralston Valley’s goal with speed and technically thought-out plays. Blair Durand playing outside forward carried the ball up the field, and created many scoring opportunities for the Sabercats within the first 10 minutes. 14 minutes into the first Dominic Gibson played a nice split ball to Blair Durand, Blair took it to the end line and crossed it right across the 6 yard line to Jaime Chavarria. Chavarria had an unlucky miss, with an open net leaving the score sitting at 0-0. Ralston, a little rattled, were fired up and attacked Jake White our goalkeeper. One of Ralston’s attacking players got fouled by Fossil’s midfield, and took a 30 yard shot. There was confusion between the Sabercat defense and Jake and Fossil let a slow rolling ball slide right into the corner of the goal. After coming back from that Blair had the ball out wide on the 20 yard line and took a crazy shot, exciting the fans, that the Ralston goalkeeper got his fingertips on and tapped it away from their goal. Within the last 10 minutes of the first, Ralston put away two very nice shots both from the 18, leaving the game at 0-3 Ralston at half.
After a rough first half, the boys had a tense talk with coach Shannon Clarke and ran out and began the second half fired up. Early in the second, Fossil got a foul on the 30 yard line. Crey Gonzalez took the shot hitting it off of the cross bar; the crowd went wild. After a good amount of changes in possession by both teams Ralston put away another great shot away with only 17 minutes remaining in the second half. The Sabercats didn’t quit. They continued to play fast, and tackle hard, Dominic Gibson, who was one of the hardest working players out on the turf went down with 10 minutes left and was escorted by the trainer off of the field. In the last couple minutes Fossil would play in this 2015 season, and in the last high school the seniors would play, Alec Quintana came in to finish out the game. Although we were losing, the crowd went nuts for him and for the last 3 minutes the crowd continued to cheer for “Q” as well as the team until the timer ran out.
It was a tough loss for Fossil’s varsity 2015 boys team, the final score was 0-4 which wraps up their high school season. Even though the last game for the seniors’ high school soccer career ended with a loss, they will be greatly missed. The next chapter for this team is to come out fired up and motivated to win the All Conference Tournament next fall season.
