In sports, the thrill of victory has a way of cruelly and unfairly giving way to the agony of defeat. Two days after thrilling its home crowd with a double-overtime shootout victory , the Battle Mountain boys soccer team left the state semifinals on the wrong side of a stunning 3-2 loss to Air Academy late Wednesday night at Jeffco Stadium. While Husky head coach Dave Cope admitted the former game was “not our best performance” — he felt the latter was perhaps the defending state champion’s best.
“Arguably, objectively, that’s one of the best Battle Mountain performances ever, especially considering the magnitude of the game,” he said. The longtime coach knows metrics don’t guarantee victory. “But it tilts the game hugely in our favor, and more often than not, it will result in a victory,” he continued.
“Last night it didn’t and that’s tough to take...
that’s the beauty and the pain of this sport — a team can hang on and give themselves a chance and then steal something.” The Huskies, after allowing Noah Kostanian Urvik’s rebound goal off a corner kick in the 37th minute, thoroughly dominated the second half. It wasn’t until 20:41 remaining in the game, however, that they had something to show for it.
Charlie Strauch lobbed a perfect back door pass from the near side corner of the 18-yard box to a charging Jakob Methvin at the opposite post to tie things up. “We were in this situation where people might have been panicking or taking crazy .
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