Torrington, Douglas tie again

Andrew Towne
Posted 4/28/21

TORRINGTON – In their first meeting of the season, Torrington and Douglas played to a 1-1 tie in Douglas, and on Friday, the two teams met up again in Torrington, ultimately ending with an identical result – a tie.

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Torrington, Douglas tie again

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TORRINGTON – In their first meeting of the season, Torrington and Douglas played to a 1-1 tie in Douglas, and on Friday, the two teams met up again in Torrington, ultimately ending with an identical result – a tie.

The teams battled to a 2-2 draw after 100 minutes of hard-fought action.

“We outshot them. Our kids played hard. We should have had more goals,” THS coach Gabe Bartlett said. “Nothing you can do about it now, but we’ll continue to work on finishing.”

The word finishing was a key word again for Bartlett.

“We want them, if they are near the box, to shoot it,” he said. “Sometimes one more pass may be beneficial. We just have to finish better.”

Torrington struck first with a header by junior Chase Miller in the 12th minute, but 10 minutes later, Douglas tied the match at one on a corner kick.

The score remained tied through halftime, and in the 47th minute, junior Kieser Wolfe’s header attempt bounced off the top cross bar, but the ricochet came right back to Wolfe. On the second attempt, he was able to punch it by the Douglas goalkeeper to put the Blazers back on top 2-1.

Eight minutes later, Douglas once again tied the match, this time on a penalty kick.

The score remained the same for the remainder of   the contest.

Despite many attempts by Torrington and dominating time of possession in the two 10-minute overtime periods, the Blazers were not able to get another shot by Douglas.

“In that overtime, everyone knew we played as a team, inside-out, and (Douglas) didn’t get (the ball) past half, coming this way very often,” Bartlett said. “If we can play like that the whole game. If we can play that inside-out. If we can play the 1-2s, we are very hard to beat.”

However, the coach thought the kids pressed a little too hard at points throughout the game.

“At times, we get a little too direct and wanting to push it down the field too much. I think the kids get feeling like they have to press. If we can get them slowed down, playing as a team, playing that inside-out game with our 1-2s and our outside backs and our wingers running, it opens the field,” Bartlett said. “If we can play like that the whole game, from start to finish, we’re not in a tie.”

That was a point of emphasis following the match – along with finishing.

Torrington (4-2-2 overall and 3-0-2 in the 3A East Conference) hosts Buffalo (2-7 and 2-4) on Friday at 4 p.m. for Senior Night.