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Fort Lewis College Athletics

Scoreboard

Peter Byrne
Bob McLellan, Courtesy Photo
FLC redshirt junior goalkeeper Peter Byrne makes one of his seven saves during Tuesday's RMAC quarterfinal win over Westminster College.
2
Winner Fort Lewis FLMS (5-2-1, 3-2-1)
0
Westminster (UT) WCMS (3-4-1, 3-1-1)
Winner
Fort Lewis FLMS
(5-2-1, 3-2-1)
2
Final
0
Westminster (UT) WCMS
(3-4-1, 3-1-1)
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 F
Fort Lewis FLMS 2 0 2
Westminster (UT) WCMS 0 0 0

Game Recap: Men's Soccer | | David Wilson, Assistant AD-Communications

Two early goals propel Skyhawks on to RMAC semi-finals

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Tight games have been the norm between the Fort Lewis College men's soccer team and Westminster College. And Dumke Field has not historically been a kind venue for the Skyhawks, who were 1-3 all time out in Salt Lake City going into Tuesday's RMAC Tournament quarterfinal.

Fort Lewis started to rewrite the series history on Tuesday, tallying two goals through the game's first 14 minutes to roll to a 2-0 road playoff victory, advancing to Friday's RMAC Tournament semi-final matchup against Colorado School of Mines.

The victory bucked the trend of six of the last seven matchups between the Skyhawks (5-2-1 overall) and Griffins (3-4-1 overall) being decided by one goal.

"I thought we put together a great team performance today and deserved to win," said FLC head men's soccer coach, David Oberholtzer. "Thinking back over the last few years, every time we played Westminster it's been one-goal games. So going in and being able to score the two early goals, create some separation, was great and something we hadn't done much this year except that last conference game against Adams State. Any time we're able to score a couple goals, we feel like from a defensive standpoint that we're in a really good spot."

Fort Lewis wasted little time drawing first blood as senior forward Brantley Bice netted his second goal of the spring just 6:38 into the match, finishing off a rebound opportunity after an initial shot by redshirt junior Loic Jean-Baptiste.

Less than seven minutes later, sophomore midfielder Ciaran Feeney settled a loose ball and drilled a shot from the top of the 18-foot penalty box marker.

The goal was the first of Feeney's young career, coming in his eighth game in a FLC uniform.

"He's been coming on and making big strides the last year. It was a huge goal for him, getting his first minutes on the field this season and earning a starting position," Oberholtzer said. "It's been really awesome to see his progression and his hard work is paying off."

The two-goal lead was more than enough for a stout FLC defense that ranks second in the RMAC at 0.63 goals allowed per game.

Westminster fired off 25 shots to FLC's 17 for the game, but only seven landed on net and were handled cleanly by FLC redshirt junior goalkeeper, Peter Byrne.

Tuesday's clean sheet marked back-to-back shutouts for the FLC defense and third total shutout of the abbreviated 2021 spring season.

"Overall, it was really a great performance from the guys. We followed and executed our game plan, came out with the right result and got ourselves on to the next round," Oberholtzer said. "We're already looking at Colorado School of Mines on Friday, which is another really exciting opportunity for the guys. It'll be our third time seeing them and we feel like we were a little unfortunate the first two times. So hopefully the third time is the charm."

Fort Lewis now advances to the RMAC Tournament semi-finals for the second straight season. This time FLC will meet up with No. 11 ranked Colorado School of Mines at 4 p.m. Friday in Grand Junction. Colorado Mesa University is serving as the RMAC Tournament semi-final and finals host Friday and Sunday.

The Skyhawks and Orediggers matched up twice during the regular season, with CSM narrowly coming away with wins of 1-0 (2OT) in Durango on April 1 and a 1-0 regulation win (April 9) in Golden.

"We know them and they know us. I don't think there's going to be anything really different and we've been happy with the way we played both times we come up against them this season," Oberholtzer said. "It's strictly just continuing to create good chances and executing. I think that's what the game is going to come down to. We need to make sure we take our chances and score a goal."
 
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