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Steamboat soccer easily beats Salida

Sailors look to next week after 6-1 win at home

Luke Graham
Steamboat’s Brandon Marr falls a step short of a goal in the first half of Saturday’s game against Salida. That didn’t keep the Sailors from racking up a big win, however, outpacing their opponents, 6-1.
Joel Reichenberger





Steamboat’s Brandon Marr falls a step short of a goal in the first half of Saturday’s game against Salida. That didn’t keep the Sailors from racking up a big win, however, outpacing their opponents, 6-1.
Joel Reichenberger

— Now is when teams in the Western Slope soccer league will start to separate themselves.

The Steamboat Springs soccer team, with a dominating 6-1 home victory against Salida on Saturday, preps for the first big stretch of games this season.

Steamboat (3-0-1 overall, 1-0 in the Western Slope League) plays two rivals this week in Moffat County and Battle Moun­­tain. Considering how the league has been, where parity is the key word, this week is instrumental in the run for a league championship.



“This was good for our confidence,” Steamboat’s Kai Rogers said about Saturday’s win. “I think we’re coming into the season pretty good, and our playing level has gone up. I’m excited to see how our team does against some of the stronger teams. We’re not totally sure how we’re going to be.”

Judging from Saturday’s performance, Steamboat seems to be righting things after struggling in a 2-0 win Thursday against Glenwood Springs. The Sailors proved to be the better team from the start against Salida.



Enrique Lopez scored to put Steam­­boat up, 1-0, in the 6th minute. Buck Williams added a goal in the 23rd minute, before Salida’s Zeferino Rivera scored in the 34th to make it 2-1. Hanson Buchner then played a beautiful ball from beyond midfield to the feet of Evan DuPuy for a 3-1 Steamboat lead going into the half.

In the second, Rogers bookended a pair of goals around one from Brandon Marr to give Steamboat a commanding lead.

“Hopefully, we will find a rhythm like we did (Saturday),” said Mac Noel, who had two assists. “That will help us through the next couple of games.”

Considering that Steamboat was coming off that win against Glenwood Springs where the Sailors didn’t play their best, Saturday’s win was just the type of soccer coach Rob Bohlmann likes.

The team was more relaxed and compact and kept possession for almost the entire game.

Steamboat now preps for a 6 p.m. Thursday showdown at home against Moffat County. Bohlmann said despite past results, Moffat has just as good a chance as any team in the murky Western Slope League.

After that, Steamboat plays at noon Saturday in Battle Mountain. Even with the Huskies on the horizon, Bohl­mann said Thursday’s game becomes the key.

Moffat “could be the team to beat in the league,” Bohlmann said. “If they are, we’ll see. We’re going to go into the game with that mentality. They had a good team last year, and I think our two sides will be more balanced right now. We’ll try and play sharp within our group.”


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