Box Score How It Happened
In a battle of two teams at the top of the RMAC table, #13 Colorado School of Mines (10-0-1, 8-0) earned a crucial 1-0 victory over ten-man Colorado Mesa (8-3-1, 5-2) on Sunday, October 11 at Stermole Soccer Stadium.
The win puts the Orediggers on the cusp of the RMAC regular-season championship, which they could secure with a win at Fort Lewis next Friday night.
Ten minutes into the second half, sophomore Bryce Townsend received a nice feed from sophomore Nikolaus Grotz on the right side of the box. Townsend then crossed it into the box where senior Richard Garvey headed home his eighth goal of the season. That goal ended up being all Mines needed to escape with the 1-0 win.
Mines appeared as though it would collect its second goal in the 65th minute when sophomore Ryan Blarr was taken down in the box to earn a penalty kick. Grotz took the PK and tried to the beat the keeper to the right, but clanged it off the post.
While the first half didn't have much in the way of real scoring chances for either team, it did set the stage for the rest of the game with an early sending off. CMU midfielder Moshe Perez was given a straight red when he took down Grotz outside the box in the 18th minute, forcing Mesa to play with ten men for the rest of the game.
The Mavericks got two quality headers that just went over the bar in the dying embers of the first half, but that was as close as they would get.
Notables
- Having already clinched a berth in the RMAC Tournament, Mines inched closer to an outright championship with today's win. The Orediggers now have 24 points with only two games remaining.
- Garvey's goal in the 55th-minute was not only his eighth of the season, but was his fourth for the weekend. He scored a hat trick Friday night in the 6-0 win over Westminster.
- Mines outshot Mesa 19-10 and 9-4 on shots on goal.
- Starting keeper Collin Hall picked up his seventh clean sheet of the season and his third straight overall, including a reaction punch of a skipping ball up over the crossbar with just over a minute remaining.
- Mavericks' head coach Todd Padgett was sent off in the 86th minute on his second yellow.
Quotables
"Frank gives me the freedom to run up and down. I have to get back every time because that's what we work on first and foremost is to keep the zero, but when I get the chance to go forward he likes me to work the sidelines and work up and down, because the harder we go at them the less energy they have to come at us." - right back
Bryce Townsend on his role in the offensive game for Mines. Townsend has three assists in two games.
Up Next
Mines will return to action next Friday, October 16 when they head to Durango for a showdown with Fort Lewis at 3 p.m. FLC sits second in the table behind the Orediggers.
