THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Fruita Monument High School Athletics

After being under pressure in a loss last weekend, the Fruita Monument High School soccer team was the one applying the pressure Wednesday night. The Wildcats bounced back from a tough loss to ThunderRidge to defeat Montrose 5-0 at Canyon View Park. Fruita coach Ethan Johnson said the Wildcats (6-3, 4-0 Southwestern League) worked to limit the pressure from Montrose (7-2, 2-1 SWL) as a response to last weekend's loss. "Our last game we played a team that really pressed us really hard. We know Montrose has some players that can just run at you, so we knew that we had to be composed as we built the attack," Johnson said. "(Our team) was super composed and found gaps in the defense and did a good job exploiting them." Fruita took the lead early in the first half when Lila Dere cut past a Montrose defender inside the box and fired a hard shot into the far right corner of the net. Laurel Storheim and Violet Detwiler scored to increase the lead to 3-0 as the Wildcats stayed on the attack. Shay Cutshall scored in the second half, ricocheting the ball off the crossbar and down into the net on a long shot, to push the lead to 4-0. Cutshall said Fruita kept to the basics early in the game, which helped boost confidence as the game progressed. "I think we played simple to begin with and then we started being more creative and finding combinations in the middle and then working as a team," the junior said. Dere scored the game's final goal after receiving the ball inside the Indians' box. With her back to the goal she settled the ball, spun around and fired. "I just thought, I'm so close to the goal so I might as well just have a hit on it," Dere said. "It was nice to see it go in the net." Dere said the team had not connected against ThunderRidge and they had trouble developing plays into scoring chances. She said she was relieved the Wildcats were able to shake off the loss. Montrose coach Cassie Snyder credited Fruita with providing consistently tough competition and added frantic play from the Indians kept them from mounting an offensive attack against Fruita for much of the game. "A loss is a great opportunity for us to improve," Snyder said. "It identifies where we need to get better. That's my message with my kids, especially in a loss, 'Hey, how do we grow from this? How do we improve?' " Johnson wants Fruita to focus on playing quicker as they move forward. "I think we just need to keep a realistic mindset," Johnson said. "We've played all our league teams. We've beat them. We need to not make the mistake of thinking we've earned anything yet. We've only done half of the league games and from here it is a clean sheet."

THE OFFICIAL SITE OF
Fruita Monument High School Athletics

FRUITA SCORES DECISIVE WIN OVER MONTROSE

DAN WEST

Grand Junction Sentinel | 4/17/2019