Steamboat Pilot & Today

Littleton — The Steamboat Springs girls soccer team held off Standley Lake in the final minutes of Saturday's game at the Littleton stadium to win its first tournament of the year.

"It was just a great, all-around, team effort," Sailors coach Jim Dudley said of the game and the tournament.

Steamboat, who is now 2-1-0 on the season, picked up the tournament win with a 4-0 victory over Grand Junction Central, a 0-0 tie with Littleton and a thrilling 2-1 win over Standley Lake in the final game of the tournament. Steamboat topped the tourney with the best record (based on points), and Littleton was second.

"It was good for us because we have a lot of young kids and they got to see a lot of playing time," Dudley said.

Steamboat opened the weekend Friday with a 4-0 win over Grand Junction Central. Bernadette Norman scored the first goal of the game in the first half. Steamboat extended its lead when Liz Masterson sank the ball into the back of the net a few minutes later.

Tracy Lucas gave the Sailors a 3-0 lead at the end of the first with another goal. Andryn Arithson provided the assist with a nice crossing pass. Jessica Fritz added another goal in the second half to complete the Sailors' shutout.

That same night, Steamboat played to a 0-0 tie with Littleton. Nikki Garth and Lia Utu both had solid games in the midfield for the Sailors. The defense also played well by holding off the 5A school's attack for the entire game.

Dudley said goalkeeper Kelly Asbury played a solid game in the net. He said Asbury and fellow goalkeeper Jannike Combs played a big role in Steamboat's success over the weekend.

In the final game, on Saturday, Steamboat took the early lead when Andrea Len headed a ball past the Standley Lake goalkeeper. The play was set up by a long free kick from Fritz.

Standley Lake came back to tie the game on a penalty kick, but Utu put the Sailors up with less than 10 minutes to go in the game with a shot from way outside.

Once again the Steamboat defense tightened up and Standley Lake was unable to score in the final minutes of the game.

"It was just a great team game," Dudley said. "Players like Julie Wernig would make some great runs up the middle and set up a lot of other people. It was just the type of weekend where everybody worked together."

Dudley said juniors Tess Hottenroth and Cassidy Kurtz also stepped up their level of play in the first tournament of the year.

The start is a good one for the Sailors. Last year, Steamboat lost to both Littleton (3-0) and Standley Lake (4-1) in early season games. Steamboat's next test will be at 4 p.m. Friday against Boulder, in Boulder.