THS soccer splits with RHS

Andrew Towne
Posted 5/4/23

TORRINGTON – The Torrington High School soccer teams returned home on Tuesday to face the Rawlins Outlaws for the first time this season.

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THS soccer splits with RHS

Posted

TORRINGTON – The Torrington High School soccer teams returned home on Tuesday to face the Rawlins Outlaws for the first time this season.

Tuesday’s conference doubleheader was a rescheduled match from April 6, and the Torrington boys were coming off a heart-breaking shootout loss to the Worland Warriors, the Blazers bounced back with a 3-1 win over the Outlaws.

“We played really well,” coach Gabe Bartlett said. “I was worried after Worland how our kids would come out. It could have gone one of two ways.”

Torrington came out and jumped on Rawlins with a 2-0 lead.

The Outlaws cut into the lead with a goal, but the Blazers sealed the deal with a late goal.

All three of Torrington’s goals came courtesy of penalty kicks. Anthony Arnusch, Elijah Hatch and Kaiden Riggs scored one each.

Blazers came into the match playing a similar formation which proved to be successful against Worland.

“We let Anthony and Hatch cause havoc on their back line,” Bartlett said.

During the game, Juan Carlos Stevens returned to the game after missing the Worland game but was hurt again after only four minutes.

Bartlett turned to sophomore Josiah Steinecker for the remainder of the game, leaving only two players on the bench for substitutions.

“It was another great team effort,” Bartlett said. “We are starting to play really good defense, even though it may not look very organized.”

With the win over Rawlins, Torrington owns wins over every team in the 3A East Conference but Worland. The Blazers are now four points ahead of Rawlins in the standings and remain one point in front of Douglas for the No. 2 seed.

“If we can get a win against Newcastle and Buffalo, we’ll be sitting pretty for that two seed,” Bartlett said. “It was a big win.”

Lady Blazers fall to Rawlins

The Lady Blazers fell 5-2 to Rawlins in the battle of winless teams.

Torrington fell behind 4-0 in the first half but outscored the Lady Outlaws 2-1 in the second half.

“We are continuing to improve,” coach Dave Cummings said.

Elle Tapia scored Torrington’s first goal.

“Elle scored on a very smart soccer play,” Cummings said. “She got fouled just outside the box and immediately set the ball down and placed it before Rawlins had the opportunity to respond. It was a very heads up and very smart play.”

It was something the Lady Blazers had been working on, and Cummings added it was good to see the move pay off.

Jade Brothwell added the second goal of the game on a penalty kick.

“I really challenged them in the second half to come together as a unit, particularly on defense, and they did that yesterday,” Cummings said.

Up next

Torrington is back in action on Saturday, May 6 against the Buffalo Bison in the team’s final home game of the season. The girls’ match kicks off at noon with the boys’ to follow at 2 p.m.