(Andre Lyseight/CHSAANow.com)
HIGHLANDS RANCH – Not even torrential rains couldn’t stop the Legend Titans and ThunderRidge Grizzlies from facing off Tuesday night at Shea Stadium.
In a game that was delayed an hour and a half due to weather conditions the two teams didn’t let the rain stop them from playing like any other night, and the Grizzlies were able to hang on for the 2-1 win.
The turning point of the game occurred when ThunderRidge (12-0 overall, 7-0 5A Continental League) was able to score two goals in the matter of 53 seconds before halftime. The first goal came from sophomore midfielder Ethan Anderson off a penalty kick down the middle. Shortly after second goal came from senior forward Brian Mantey with a beautiful corner kick.
“I think we had a iffy game,” Anderson said. “We played better before but we pulled out a win that’s all that matters.”
Anderson explained his game-changing goal that gave his team the lead.
“I just saw that the keeper was a little leaned to the right so I decided to place it the bottom left corner,” he said.
The Titans (4-5-1, 1-3-1) controlled the ball during the majority of the half prior to the goals from the Grizzlies. Legend had more opportunities to score than ThunderRidge but was not able to capitalize on any of the opportunities. Titans senior Dana Smith had a few opportunities to score with a nice mid air kick that just barely missed the goal.
“Tonight was probably the best game we played. We put together a 79-minute game and we needed an 80-minute game, unfortunately,” Titans coach Jordan Ivey said. “The boys really took the game plan and translated it. We were able to kind of frustrate what they were trying to do and really put in place what we were hoping to do.”
Both teams showed resilience as rain poured throughout the whole game.
In the second half Legend came out with the same intensity, forgetting their previous mistakes. The Titans controlled the ball majority of the second half just like the first half. Legend was finally able to get the ball in the net when junior Eric Peter scored with seven minutes left in the game. ThunderRidge held off Legend from scoring the remainder of the game.
“We played okay, it was not one of our best performances. Legend brought it tonight. I give them all the credit in the world, they were fantastic,” Grizzlies coach Chris Smith said. “All the pressure and energy they needed was there. We weathered the storm because they were fantastic tonight”.
The Grizzlies are currently ranked No.2 in the Class 5A CHSAANow.com rankings and are undefeated this season.
“We take it game by game. The most important thing is to put a win on the board and keep it going,” said Anderson.
Coach Smith says he preaches to his team to take games one at a time during their streak.
“This is the most coachable group I ever had,” he said. “They work hard and they take care of each other. I think that’s the biggest reason the streak has gone on