Thursday nightap Boulder Panthers at Fairview Knights showdown was everything soccer fans have come to expect between the two storied Front Range League and city foes.
There was no parking to be had within a half-mile of the pitch. Both student sections were out in full force, as they would be for a football game on Friday night. And between the lines, the top-ranked Panthers and the seventh-ranked Knights played a physical, fast-paced game, with both sides trading bruises and scoring opportunities.
But the momentum of the back-and-forth battle shifted at the 17:46 mark of the first half, when Boulder senior midfielder Abe Lopez’s goal from 15 yards out on the right side not only sucked the air out of the home crowd, it also put the Panthers (10-0, 7-0) on the path to a 3-1 victory over the Knights (7-3, 5-2).
“Fairview has great movement off the ball, and we knew coming into this game there was going to be some hard tackles,” Boulder coach Hardy Kalisher said. “We kept our composure, we absorbed (their physicality) and we continued to play our fast-paced game that led to a very unselfish assist from Bridger Good set up that first goal.”
Senior forward Trey Pace added another first-half goal when his beautiful, sinking shot from the right corner of the pitch found the top left shelf of the net at the 3:40 mark, and Tavo Castruita tacked on a second-half insurance goal as Boulder withstood a furious Fairview push down the stretch.
“We responded particularly well to their press and their movement — they were relentless — and we knew this was going to be a game until the very end,” Kalisher said. “Even with a two-goal lead in the second half, it was still very much a game.”
Panthers sophomore keeper Djibril Doumbia came in clutch for Boulder, making an array of impressive and timely saves. Besides a goal by Knights senior Ryan Houseman with 25:53 to play, Doumbia quelled Fairview’s offense and often turned the tide of the game back in Boulder’s favor with his stops.
“Djibril’s got very mature hands, and he read the game very well tonight,” Kalisher said. “His feet and his mind got him in a place to show what kind of hands he has, which was great because we haven’t had a team thatap been able to press our back line like Fairview did tonight.”
The Panthers are in action next at home against Monarch on Oct. 5, and though the team understands the importance of a victory over a longtime city rival — and especially one the Panthers lost to twice last year, the second time being in the state quarterfinals — the 2012 5A state champions have not been, and don’t plan to be, a program defined by regular-season wins.
“We wanted to have some big results early in the year, and I think we’ve done that — the win over Legacy was a strong confidence builder, as was beating the six-time state champions from Delaware,” Kalisher said. “But we knew that this was a big game, and Fairview wasn’t able to stretch us out of our shape. Their movements happened, but we maintained our discipline, and thatap something we’ll look to continue to do.”
