Battle Mountain and Vail Mountain School boys soccer teams rekindle rivalry
The Huskies jumped out to a 4-0 first-half lead and never looked back to claim their sixth-straight win
Rex Keep/Courtesy photo
The first 10 minutes of Tuesday’s game between Battle Mountain and Vail Mountain School looked exactly like what you’d expect from a local rivalry match: tons of energy — and tons of shots on goal.
“Probably just excited and there were friends and girls in the stands — the whole thing,” Huskies coach Dave Cope said with a grin.
“I felt like everyone was trying to prove themselves,” added sophomore outside back Diego Gardea. “Everyone wanted the (first) goal, but as soon as everybody played as a team, we played good.”
After 21 minutes and 56 seconds of play, Gardea got the glory, pounding home a shot from the fan-side wing of the 18-yard box off a pass from Grey Glowacki.
“I decided to be wide and I called for the ball,” Gardea said. “I took a touch and the kid opened his leg and I scored on the side netting.”
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The goal precipitated a barrage of Husky scores as the visitors raced to a 4-0 first-half lead and held on for the 5-1 win in their first match against the Gore Rangers since 2021.
“It was great, and we have great respect for Vail Mountain School and what they’re doing here,” Cope said after his team improved to 5-0 against their east Vail rivals dating back to 2016. “They will do well in the tournament in the 2A and we’ll be rooting for them the rest of the way. We enjoy everybody over here and we enjoy the visit.”
Vail Mountain School coach Kevin Ives appreciated testing his program against what he called one of the best teams “not only in 4A, but the state in general.”
“We want to continue to build our program and have sustained success and I think this is just a great opportunity for us to compete against a quality side just to see what it takes to get to the next level,” he said.
Ives felt his team embodied their pre-game mindset of playing “our best soccer,” well, effectively compacting and constricting passing lanes.
“But you know, against a quality team, a couple breakdowns here and there or a bad angle on a pass — they’re going to capitalize on that — and they definitely did,” he added.
The Gore Rangers had one of their best opportunities of the whole game just 5:40 in, when a breakaway look led to a rebound chance — both of which barely missed. Over the next four minutes, Jakob Methvin, Carlos Gardea and Grey Glowacki each sent proximal point opportunities wide of the post. Finally, Diego Gardea put his team on the board with his first varsity goal.
“He’s been in the mix several times and just not been able to punch it in. So for him, it was great to see that,” said Cope, who has always encouraged his outside backs to get forward and in the box.
“And it was good validation for our team, because I thought the first few minutes we got stuck trying to ram it up the middle,” the veteran coach continued. “It was sort of proof of concept to get the ball moving quickly and get it to an outside back who scores.”
Six minutes later, the Huskies struck again. Ismael Quezada hustled down a through ball on the far side of the field and drew a penalty. He deferred the penalty kick to Methvin, who scored his ninth goal of the season. Cope — who said he often tells his players, “judge yourself by how you impact the game” — felt Quezada’s play off the bench was instrumental in the victory.
“When he came on it was 0-0 and when he came off it was 2-0,” the coach said. “I thought he had a huge impact.”
With 6:08 to go, Methvin displayed his ability to create his own shot, dribbling into the far side of the penalty box and laying it up to the left corner for the 3-0 lead. With 42 seconds left in the half, Emilio Paulon’s beautiful through-pass to Glowacki set up the senior for a left-footed shot to the right side of the goal.
“Coach has taught us the entire week to bounce and we had good training,” Paulon said. “(It was) a very intense, very physical game. I quite enjoyed it.”
Danny Sanchez scored the Huskies’ lone second-half goal in the 55th minute. With 2:56 remaining, Alec Uribe got Vail Mountain School on the board with a breakaway goal of his own.
“They’re just a super talented team up top. They play really well within their own system, they know how they want to play and they don’t let other teams dictate how they play,” Ives said of his opponents. “We wanted to play defensive first and try to build out of the back and take our opportunities as they come. Always a little disappointing going into half 4-0, but I think we had a good halftime message with coaches and players and I’m pleased with what we saw that last 40 minutes.”
Vail Mountain School slid to 4-4-2 with five games remaining on the schedule. Ives said he’s hoping his squad can heal up in the week-long break before traveling to Aspen on Oct. 17. On Tuesday, the Gore Rangers were without the full services of captain Drew Johnson, who was day-to-day with a leg injury coming into the match.
“(I) was pleased he was able to give us the minutes that he could,” Ives said. “It’s always tough when you’ve got your senior captain not able to give it a go, but we have a lot of young guys who came up today and (I was) just really proud of them for stepping into Drew’s shoes and giving us some quality minutes.”
The Huskies improved to 8-3 with their sixth-straight victory. When they return from fall break, they’ll travel to Pine Creek on Oct. 18 and Eagle Valley on Oct. 22.
“We don’t want to talk about (the streak) too much, but we’re in good form in October and that’s always the exercise,” Cope said. “Can you be rounding into good form as there’s leaves on the ground and then still be playing when there’s snow on the ground? That’s the goal.”
