Manitou Springs dominates Elizabeth in dreary weather; remains unbeaten entering second round of playoffs
May 12—Manitou Springs fans erupted in cheers as the Mustangs girls' soccer team scored a 10th goal Friday evening, invoking a mercy rule and ending the first-round playoff game about half a minute early, sparing them from a downpour.
The ongoing rain had been kind enough to hold to a light drizzle for about 60 of the 80 minutes of play, but began to pick up in the final leg of the match.
Neither the poor weather nor being without their leading goal scorer due to a red card suspension could stop Manitou on Friday. Senior midfielder Cassidy Kuzbeck recorded four goals and senior forward Madrid Mack had a hat trick as the third-seeded Mustangs "woman-handled" 30th-seed Elizabeth 10-0 in the opening round of the Class 3A state bracket while improving to an unbeaten 16-0.
"This win is super important it kind of sets the tone for the rest of the playoffs for us," Mack said. "I feel like we started like right away, which we've kind of struggled with in the past. So I think that's really good and new for us. I'm looking forward to it."
The Mustangs were off to the races from the get go with Kuzbeck taking a cross and putting it past Elizabeth keeper Lily Settoon in the first three minutes of play. Kuzbeck would find goal number two off a set just over 15 minutes into the half.
Mack took over from there, scoring the team's next two goals, including one on a long shot from outside the 18-yard-box. She assisted the team's fifth goal with a nice through ball to fellow senior forward Grace McCumber with a minute left in the half to put Manitou up 5-0.
"I always like to put in a lot of work. I feel like it kind of sets the tone," Mack said. "We always talk about going into tackles hard, not like dirty but a tackle always increases energy, so having energy boosts everyone's play."
Manitou kept its foot on the gas, scoring on a pair of penalty kicks and a couple more goals from Kuzbeck before the game ended in the final minute.
Friday's match was originally scheduled for Thursday, but it was postponed because of the weather. As a result, the Mustangs will be back in action at home for round two against league opponent Salida on Saturday.
If anyone is up to the challenge it's the Mustangs who have 10 seniors on their roster this season. Mack said she's been playing with many of her teammates on club teams since she was five or six years old.
"Our mentality's a lot better this year," she said. "(We have) a lot of seniors so we have a lot of experience also this year and if we're gonna go far it's going to be this year. I think we all know that so we're kind of pushing as hard as we can because we know this is our year to do it."
