TORRINGTON – The match between the Torrington Blazers and the Douglas Bearcats came down to the final minute of Saturday’s 80-minute battle.
The visitors battled back from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game at two apiece with only 15 minutes to play. In the end, Blazer sophomore Elijah Hatch broke the tie with a goal in the final minute of the game to secure a 3-2 victory.
The go-ahead goal in the final minute was Hatch’s third goal of the game.
“Elijah, he can flat score,” THS coach Gabe Barlett said. “Hatch will shoot 1,000 times a game, and we tell him to.”
Torrington came into the game with a shuffled lineup from the first game of the season.
“We moved Griffin (Wolfe) to the goal. We moved Aidyn Shimic up, Carter (Blevins) up and moved Juan (Carlos Stevens) back to his normal position on defense,” Barlett said. “Our midfield is talented. If we can get them going and get (Anthony Arnusch) dribbling at the other team, we can be scary.”
Hatch netted his first goal of the game in the seventh minute and second in the 22nd minute.
Only a minute after Torrington went up 2-0, Douglas connected on its first goal of the game in the 23rd minute.
Bartlett chalked it up to nerves for sophomore Griffin Wolfe.
“He gets wound up to say the least,” Bartlett said. “That one handed save, the punch out where he was going one way and came back – it was beautiful. That first one, we’ll chalk that up to nerves. Ninety-nine percent of the time, he makes that. The other one was a good hit.”
The score remained 2-1 through halftime. In the 65th minute, Douglas tied the game at two.
The match remained tied until the 79th minute when Hatch slipped past a Bearcat defender and took a shot, finding the back of the next with 55 seconds left in regulation.
The win improved the Blazers to 2-0 on the season and picking up the first conference victory of the season was a big confidence booster for the young team.
“It is big. We knew this was going to be a test. It is huge to jump out and get that first one,” Bartlett said. “We are right there. We are right where we want to be.”
Torrington hosts the Rawlins Outlaws (1-2) on Thursday. Kickoff is scheduled for 5 p.m.
Rawlins comes into the game picking up its only win against the same Douglas team.
“Every game for us is going to be a test,” Bartlett said. “We are going to have to keep learning. This was a great learning experience for us.”
Lady Blazers fall to Douglas
In the girls’ contest, the Lady Blazers were minus three starters and five total players, and the end result was a 10-0 loss in the 3A East Conference opener to the Douglas Lady Bearcats.
For the first 12 minutes, Torrington kept Douglas off the scoreboard, but in the 13th minute of the game, the Lady Bearcats got their first goal into the net.
It was the first five goals coming in the first half for the visitors.
Leading 5-0 at the break, Douglas added five more goals in the second half.
The Lady Bearcats final goal came in the 71st minute.
The loss drops the Lady Blazers to 0-2 on the season. They host Rawlins Lady Outlaws (0-3) at 3 p.m. Thursday.
