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Furious rally earns Rams first win

Joel Reichenberger
Soroco's Sarvis Anarella fights for a loose ball Friday against De Beque. Soroco trailed throughout the game and by 10 early in the fourth quarter. The Rams outscored the Dragons 30-10 in that fourth quarter, however, winning their first game of the season.
Joel Reichenberger

Routt County high school scores

Steamboat hockey 5, Chatfield 2

Niwot girls basketball 60, Steamboat 25

Woodland Park girls basketball 53, Steamboat 35

Niwot boys basketball 64, Steamboat 62

Skyview boys basketball 71, Steamboat 35

— The outcome seemed apparent Friday for the Soroco High School boys basketball team, as the team trailed by double digits through much of the first half and even most of the way through the second.

The Rams opened their season without their top seven players from last year’s league-runner up squad — some gone to graduation, others out with injury and still more focused on different sports. It showed early this season as the team lost its first five games, all but one by double-digit margins.

Trailing again by a big margin in the fourth quarter? What hope did they have?



As it turns out, they did still have a bit of hope and one furious rally.

Soroco stormed back in the fourth quarter to win its first game of the season, knocking of De Beque, 63-53.



“It’s huge,” coach Shawn Hayes said. “It was little things early that we weren’t doing well. We were trying to go too fast. We were pushing too hard, trying to do too much at the same time.”

They fixed those little things late, and it payed off with a win.

De Beque led 43-33 at the end of the third, but Soroco outscored the Dragons 30-10 in the fourth quarter.

The Rams, 1-5, got 20 points in the game from senior Brandon Veilleux, one of the primary engines for the comeback. He scored a whopping 13 of those points in the fourth quarter. 
He sank a pair of free throws with about 3 minutes, 30 seconds remaining to pull his team within two, 51-49. He then picked up a steal on the defensive end and drove for a layup, bouncing it in to tie the game as he drew a foul. He then made that free throw to put his team up for good.

“In the last quarter, we worked more as a team than in the first three,” Veilleux said. “I thought we were going to win this one, and we did.”

Sarvis Anaralla also scored in double figures, finishing with 14, five of which came in the fourth.

Next up for Soroco is a trip Saturday to play at Rangely.

To reach Joel Reichenberger, call 970-871-4253, email jreichenberger@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @JReich9


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