The Water Dogs fell to Aspen 28-14 in a heated contest that marked the last home match of the regular season. The loss drops the Dogs to third in the RMR ladder, making next Saturday’s trip to Park City a must-win match for the Denver side’s playoff ambitions to remain alive.
The Dogs started slow, playing the first quarter of the match almost entirely in their own half and conceding two tries early on. A break and score by the Dogs’ winger Juta Vakabuta in the 21st minute injected a much-needed burst of energy into the home squad, and the match truly came alive. Aspen punched in another try of their own and extended the margin back to a 14-point difference, but momentum seemed to build for the Water Dogs as they began to string together longer stretches of possession in the attacking half. On defense as well the Dogs closed down the gaps that had cost them early in the match, with the forwards’ physicality forcing turnovers and fullback Jacob Goeppner coolly cleaning up the occasional Aspen breakaway with a series of remarkable solo tackles. An all-or-nothing gamble by Water Dogs outside center Mo Vainikolo paid off when he shot out of the defensive line to pick off a wayward Aspen pass and run in for a try in the 38th minute, sending up a roar from the supporters on the Dogs’ touchline. Momentum seemed firmly on the Dogs’ side as the halftime whistle blew, but the scoreline remained 21-14 in Aspen’s favor.
The intensity of the match reached a fever pitch early in the second half when Water Dogs fullback Jacob Goeppner took off on a breakaway, only to be clotheslined by Aspen’s number 14 flying in with an elbow to Goeppner’s neck; with both refs and players apparently still adjusting to this year’s change in tackle height laws, the offender managed to escape with only a yellow card. Goeppner again found himself in the center of the action only some eight minutes later when he came up with a clean turnover on the Dogs’ own try line, provoking Aspen’s inside center to take a swing at him, resulting in the visitors picking up another yellow card that might easily have gone red.
With Aspen’s discipline clearly fraying under the pressure and the Dogs up two men for a couple minutes, the Denver side seemed in prime position to seize control of the match. Indeed, the Water Dogs worked their way up to Aspen’s 5m line and looked on the verge of scoring when a no-wrap tackle dislodged the ball from the arms of 8-man Jacob Russell; the knock-on was called but the foul play was not, killing the Dogs’ attacking sequence. As Aspen tried to play out of their own half, Water Dogs defenders repeatedly got over the ball for poaches but the referee’s whistle kept going against them, culminating in replacement hooker Steve-O Flores being sin-binned in the 56th minute, and another try for Aspen soon after.
The Dogs continued their ferocious rally but couldn’t quite manage to convert on any of their attacking efforts. One promising opportunity came late in the game when the Dogs managed another line break down the left side with some 40 meters of open field ahead, only for the play to be whistled dead because of an Aspen player calling for medical attention. When Aspen missed a penalty kick at goal in the final minutes, the Water Dogs mounted a valiant final effort to run it out from their own territory, but ultimately proved unsuccessful, leaving the scoreline a bitter 28-14.
Determined not to let the result get them down, the Denver men took to the town later in the evening for a sensational rendition of the annual Halloween Colfax bar crawl and scavenger hunt. With Water Dogs and Colorado Rush teammates clad in everything from superhero suits to thigh-high fishnets, the players focused on giving back to their community by buying shots for bartenders, tipping heavily, and offering free piggyback rides to complete strangers. On Tuesday, the Dogs will return to business for the last couple of training sessions before the make-or-break match at Park City next weekend and the postseason that hangs in the balance.
Water Dogs XXIII
Duncan Frost
Rodney Cordova
Zack Jessell
Ben Prentner
Jace Jackson
Alex Fitch (c)
Heath Ross
Jacob Russell
Trevor Wilder
Tyler Ingram
Juta Vakabuta
Johnny Ryberg
Mo Vainikolo
Casey Miller
Jacob Goeppner
Estevan Flores
James Fuller
Austin Dozier
Adam Satz
George Bristow
Sefo Selevasio
Yared Belay
Sam Patterson
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