Back in the day, the PASL-Pro’s two closest teams
geographically, the Denver Dynamite and Colorado Lightning might have been the
farthest apart when it came to their approach to the game. But that two angled approach kept the crowds
on the edge of their seats during their five head-to-head match-ups. The first
three were all decided in overtime and the others in the final minutes.
In the first meeting Colorado rallied to win 10-9 in
overtime on Denver’s home field, and in the return match it was Denver who
walked away with a dramatic come-from-behind 8-7 overtime win at Colorado’s home
turf, the Budweiser Events Center. Denver won in the same fashion in the round
of 16 in the U.S. Arena Open Cup with a 5-4 overtime victory. The final two
matches belonged to the Dynamite as well, 9-6 and 9-5 on the final game of
regular season, which pushed Denver into the playoffs back in 2009.
Those professional days with Lightning and Dynamite may not be
around anymore, but with the second coming of the Denver Dynamite on the heels
of the Colorado Blizzard rolling in forecasts the same “edge of your seat”
excitement…
After all the facility and scheduling issues were ironed
out, the first of 3 matches everyone has been talking about finally took place
last Saturday in Monument. Game-play was
intense from both sides despite it ending up to be a low scoring affair.
The Blizzard
threatened early and often the first half taking a 2 – 0 lead into the break.
Later in the third quarter, the Dynamite got on the scoreboard with a swift
strike from Roby Monroe to cut the Blizzard lead in half.
Then things got wild as the Denver defense was put to the
test down 2 men until Colorado suffered a matching penalty to create a 3 v 4
scenario and really open up play. Both sides managed to hold on defensively as players
came back on 1 by 1 for penalties served.
Though it was not good enough as the Blizzard who scored to close out
the quarter.
Regrouped and focused, the Dynamite answered back with a
goal by Roby Monroe, assisted by Travis Carey to open in the 4th. Then Michael Archuleta picked up a backdoor
goal for the Blizzard to regain their two goal advantage at 4 – 2. But that didn’t crush the Dynamite’s hopes
yet.
With less than six minutes left in the match, Denver pulled
their keeper, Bart Jones, and brought on Tony Avery as a 6th attacker. The switch appeared to immediately pay
dividends with a lightning fast 5 on 2 run found the ball in the back of the net. Unfortunately the restart took place quicker
than the clock and was called back.
Shortly after, Poncho Puente pinpointed Roby Monroe in amazing fashion
to assist in Monroe’s hat trick. But it
was not enough to overtake the Blizzard. Final score Blizzard 4, Dynamite 3.
The Dynamite now take
a break from league action to take on Vitesse Dallas in Arlington, TX this
Saturday at 8PM, with the winner set to play either the Detroit Waza or
Cincinnati Kings on the road in the US Arena Open Cup.
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