By Dan Karpiel
The Surveyor
Rome wasn’t built in a day.
That fact is certainly not lost on Berthoud High School (BHS) head boys soccer coach, Zac Traver. Berthoud’s second-year head coach has an extraordinarily young roster – 13 of the 18 young men who comprise the Spartans varsity roster are either freshman or sophomores – but that youth is what has Traver excited.
“I’m very excited for the future. I need to be more patient and understand the future is here and it’s going to take a little bit of time,” Traver said after Tuesday night’s match with Loveland Classical Academy at BHS. “I’m so excited every time I come out here and see what these guys are capable of.”
Berthoud dropped the match to Loveland Classical by a 2-0 final, their third loss in as many tries to begin the season. And while the results in the box score have not been there, yet, Traver has plenty of reasons for optimism.
The young Spartans play with a ton of energy, passion and drive; they are united as a group, and their dedication to their craft is unrivaled. For Traver’s part, he sees a lot to be excited about, but he sees a lot with which to work.
“The best thing to do is you just work on the things that are working,” Traver explained. “They do have a lot of talent, they do show spurts of the good passing, the good touching, the good everything, and they are young and they just need to work together. So we’re just going to keep working on the things they do well and make that their number-one goal.”
In the match with Loveland Classical, Berthoud finished the night with 12 shots on a goal, a season high, with several of the shots missing finding the back of the net by the slimmest of margins. It was also there on the defensive end, where the Spartans broke up several scoring attempts near the goal, and sophomore goalkeeper Kellen Marks recorded multiple saves, many times eating grass to keep the ball out.
“I kept telling the boys tonight it was tiny little mistakes, not big mistakes, just tiny little mistakes that we can work on in practice, and you keep doing that and they will be a team to reckon with,” Traver said.
Loveland Classical scored twice in the match, the first coming with 10:58 remaining in the first half after a weather-delayed start. Berthoud’s guests got their second and last goal of the night early in the second half, 9:07 into play. For the last 30 minutes of the match, however, Berthoud did not allow a goal or many decent opportunities. Berthoud had their best scoring chance of the night late. A shot sailed just right of the net with 5:10 remaining, a testament to how hard Berthoud battled throughout the whole contest.
“If they just keep working on the simple things, they can be a team to reckon with,” Traver said.
Berthoud (0-3) will travel to Roosevelt for their next match on Monday, Sept. 16. The Spartans will return to their home pitch on Sept. 19 when they will welcome Weld Central to Max Marr Field.
