On Tuesday, October 18 the Fossil Ridge High School boys varsity soccer team kicked off against Mountain Range High School for their last home game of the season.
In the first few minutes of play, the Sabercats took control of the game by keeping possession of the ball and passing around the Mustangs. At the 14 minute mark, Taylor Trujillo was taken down in the box, signaling a penalty kick for Fossil. Jaime Chavarria stepped up to take the PK. Chavarria struck the ball low and hard to the left side of the goal. The keeper dove and the ball hit him in the chest, resulting in no goal for the Sabercats.
Mountain Range retaliated by scoring a goal within a minute of the missed PK, causing the Mustangs to take the 0-1 lead with 30 minutes left in the first half. They continued to build momentum and scored another goal with 20 minutes left and forcing the score to be 0-2 going into halftime.
Within the first 10 minutes of the second half, the Mustangs scored yet another goal, extending their lead to 0-3. The Sabercats found some fight within them and began to push forward, creating scoring opportunities. Tyler Hause capitalized and executed one of those opportunities and put Fossil on the scoreboard, 1-3.
The fifth goal of the night brought a lot of frustration for the Sabercats. A Mountain Range player took a free kick at the 30 yard line that went through the side netting of the goal. The refs thought it was a goal and gave it to the Mustangs to make the scores 1-4. Keeper, Logan Wette argued with the refs that it wasn’t a goal and that he was right there to see it but the refs stuck with their initial call.
Mountain Range struck again a minute after the controversial goal, still leading 1-5 over Fossil. However, the Sabercats found some fire with only minutes left of the game and Grant Martinez managed to score one last goal of the game. The final score was 2-5, ending the night with another loss at Fossil’s home stadium.
The team is now 5-9 and they are ranked No. 32 in RPI standings. They still have a chance at qualifying for playoffs but if they do qualify they will have to compete against a highly ranked team.
