Lady Blazers play to draw on Senior Night

Erick Starkey
Posted 5/2/18

After striking first, the Torrington Lady Trailblazers soccer team ending up playing to a 1-1 tie against Rawlins on Friday in Torrington’s Senior Night.

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Lady Blazers play to draw on Senior Night

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TORRINGTON – After striking first, the Torrington Lady Trailblazers soccer team ending up playing to a 1-1 tie against Rawlins on Friday in Torrington’s Senior Night.

“That was a game we looked at as a must-win situation,” coach Travis Rapp said. “We had opportunities to make that happen and we just didn’t capitalize on them. Our depth has been eaten away by some minor and major injuries, so the girls had to play a few more minutes over the 80 minutes of regulation than they have.”

Kameron Stitt got the Lady Blazers on the board early. She snaked her way into the box and found the back of the net for a goal in the seventh minute.

“Stitt is starting to do that for us a bit regularly now,” Rapp said of striking first. “The girls made a good push to score another over the 10-15 minutes following her goal, but we kept getting held up right outside the 18. That is somewhere we need to improve – pulling the attack back and building into the space the defense gives us.”

Torrington was unable to convert any of their chances but still took a 1-0 lead into intermission.

“At halftime, we told them that we had to come out with a hunger and play to win, not just playing not to lose,” Rapp said. “A team like Rawlins, who is constantly playing a long ball, is dangerous in a one-goal game.”

Rawlins showed how dangerous it is with the equalizer in the 52nd minute, tying the score at 1-1. The Lady Blazers had a penalty kick in the 66th minute, but the Rawlins keeper came up with a big save to keep the score knotted.

Torrington and Rawlins finished the 80 minutes of regulation to a 1-1 tie. Neither team was able to score in either extra time period, ending the game in a draw.

Jenessa Derby racked up seven saves in the game.

Buffalo 8, Torrington 1

Following the 100-minute match the night before, Torrington hit the road Saturday to take on third-ranked Buffalo. Missing a few key players, on top of the tough game the night before and the Lady Blazers fell in an 8-1 decision.

Jenessa Derby was all over the field for Torrington. She had 11 saves, before scoring a goal of her own. Shelby Schainost had the other eight saves for Torrington.

“We decided to use the second half as a teaching half and got all of our JV players in for some good experience,” Rapp said. “We took Jenessa out of the goal and she scored one – what an athlete.”

At the end of the weekend, Torrington sits with a 0-11-2 record, with a 0-2-1 record in the conference. The Lady Blazers hosted Newcastle on Tuesday after press time. They return to action in a conference rematch on the road Saturday against Rawlins, with the regular season finale set to start at 12 p.m.

“We can’t look forward to state qualifier until this week is down,” Rapp said. “Our Rawlins game will determine who we play, and both Pinedale and Riverton look to be playing good soccer right now. We’ll use Newcastle to try some things, before we see Rawlins on Saturday.”