Offense emerges in win

That noise you heard coming from the northeast part of Colorado Springs was the University of Colorado at Colorado Springsâ€^TM offense finally getting its wake-up call.

Kenny Salazar became the ninth Mountain Lion to score a goal this season when he knocked home the game-winner in a 2-1 victory over the Montana State Billings Yellowjackets Sunday afternoon at Sand Creek Stadium.

The Mountain Lions (3-10) now have 10 goals this season, which were scored by nine different players.

But that doesnâ€^TMt begin to tell the story of Sundayâ€^TMs match. The Mountain Lions were crisp, and at times dominant, on the offensive end. They kept the ball moving forward and, perhaps most importantly, executed more one-touch passes than they have in any match this season.

“The team we played today let us do that by giving us the room to one-touch into space,” said junior forward Mark Brehm. “Weâ€^TMve been working on that a lot in practice.”

Salazarâ€^TMs goal, however, did not come as a result of a quick, one-touch pass. It came by way of a gorgeous 40-yarder by Marcus Reynolds that hit Salazar in stride.

“I won the ball in the middle. I saw Kenny running open so I got him the ball,” said Reynolds, committing a nearly felonious case of understatement. “(Salazar) had a nice touch on it and scored.”

Brehm scored his second goal of the season, the first CU-Colorado Springs player to do so, when he chipped the ball over the shoulder of MSU-Billings goalkeeper Kyle Bates in the 38th minute. Brehmâ€^TMs shot tied the match at 1 and was only the second game-tying goal of the season for CU-Colorado Springs.

“Russ (Aamodt) won the ball off of (MSU-Billings) and he played it into (Jason) Brunner who played a quick ball in to me,” said Brehm. “I had a chipping shot that went over the goalieâ€^TMs head.”

Montana State-Billings (6-11) opened the scoring in the 30th minute when Robbie Thimm caught Mountain Lions goalkeeper Chris Hovasse in no-manâ€^TMs land. Hovasse left his line to charge the ball, but Thimm was able to track it down before Hovasse arrived. His chip shot went over Hovasseâ€^TMs head and into the goal.

The goal was one of only three cases where the CU-Colorado Springs defense was caught off guard. The other two were cleaned up by Hovasse, who dove to his left to swallow up a Thimm shot in the first half, then bettered the effort with a spectacular one hander while diving to his right in the second half.

“We went from a 3-4-3 (formation) to a 4-4-2 and itâ€^TMs really worked out for us,” said Reynolds, who teams with Eric Foulk in the center of defensive formation. “During practice, we started using the 4-4-2 and it works much better for us. Itâ€^TMs really helped develop our skills.”

And while the defense has been solid most of the year, the offenseâ€^TMs coming-out party helped awaken something else thatâ€^TMs been dormant for most of this difficult season â€" a little self-confidence.

“If theyâ€^TMre going to give us that space, weâ€^TMre going to abuse it,” said Reynolds, commenting about the Mountain Lions dominance over the Yellowjackets in ball control.

If the offense continues to play like it did Sunday, CU-Colorado Springs may not be done dishing out abuse.