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--> --> Oct. 7: Comets stun Grizz in OT By Chris Miller Ashland Daily Tidings The Ashland High boys soccer team suffered a heartbreaking loss to the Crater Comets in a Southern Oregon Conference match that ended in a sudden-death shootout at North Mountain Park on Saturday. After playing 80 minutes of scoreless regular time and 20 minutes of scoreless overtime the game went into the five-player shootout, where the team that scores most, wins. Even this ended in a tie, however, so the teams went to a sudden-death, first-team-up shootout to decide the victor. After the Grizzlies missed off the post on their first attempt, Crater sent their goalkeeper, junior Tomas Iboa, to shoot first. He sent a low shot at the net, but Grizz junior keeper Tony Laughlin made a diving save to keep the match alive. Ashland's next shooter was senior midfielder Fletcher Beaudoin, who was robbed on a great save by Iboa to keep the match scoreless. Crater then sent senior Josh Smith to take its next shot. Smith hit a low-liner to the right of Laughlin, who guessed right, but only caught part of the ball with his right hand as the ball trickled into the net for the game winner. "I had my hand open instead of in a fist, and it just bounced off the top of my wrist and went in," Laughlin said after the game about the winning shot. "I knew where he was going, he just got lucky." Although the loss dropped the Grizz to 1-2 in the SOC and 5-2 overall, Laughlin said he was not disappointed in his team's effort. "I think we played really well," Laughlin said. "We broke down in parts - they came out and hustled - they just wanted it more than us." After owning Crater (8-2, 2-1 SOC) in soccer for the past few seasons the Grizz looked complacent in the first 20 minutes of the game. Crater nearly scored in the opening 10 minutes on a breakaway, but a rushed shot was saved by freshman keeper Andrew Christlieb. The Grizzlies didn't produce a shot on goal until the 28th minute, and ended the half with three shots on goal. Crater got close again in the 22nd minute when Christlieb fell down making a save before being bailed out when the Grizz defense kicked the ball out of the goal mouth. Grizz head coach Eisa Tiaa Toutou gave Crater credit after the game. "They did an excellent job," Toutou said. "They played very hard and they didn't give up." Toutou said overconfidence may have been Ashland's downfall. "We do everything in practice and when it comes to the first half, we have the mentality in our head, `OK, well we beat these guys like five years in a row, and we can beat them again,'" Toutou said. "Then you find out, oh, they have different players and different coaches, and this is a different atmosphere." In the second 40 minutes the Grizzlies seemed to realize Crater was not going to go down easy. Ashland out-shot the visitors 10-1 and nearly scored in the 48th minute on a two-on-two breakaway, but Iboa sucked up a shot by junior forward Rick Ferguson. The Grizz also rattled the post in the 57th minute, when sophomore striker Fabian Garcia-Flores just missed after playing a good right-footed strike. Garcia-Flores hit another near game-winner with four minutes remaining, but again Iboa made the save to send the game into overtime. In the overtimes the Grizz managed only one shot but held Crater shotless, as both teams looked fatigued. Toutou said the loss should serve as a costly lesson for his team. "We played a good game as a whole against Crater," Toutou said. "But we were supposed to win the game, but we didn't finish it. It was a day ... to remind us that we can lose on any given day if we don't play our game, and I think this was one of those days. "We hope this will wake us up. We will start Monday, and Tuesday we will go to Roseburg and we will see how we come out of that." Ashland's game at Roseburg is scheduled to kickoff at 4 p.m. AHS Girls Soccer At Crater, Sarah LaFontaine tallied two goals and one assist in a 4-0 Southern Oregon Conference victory over the Grizzlies on Saturday. The loss drops Ashland to 1-2 in the SOC, two matches off the pace set by South Medford (3-0), while Crater's league mark improved to 2-1. LaFontaine scored the only goal Crater would need in the 56th minute off a pass by Courtney Ratty, then assisted Kasidy Reina's 65th minute goal. Crater outshot Ashland 15-6 and had a 6-3 edge in corner kicks. Ashland next hosts Roseburg, Tuesday at 4 p.m. AHS Cross Country The Ashland boys took first and the Grizz girls were second in Division I of the annual State of Jefferson Invitational, Saturday at Lithia Park. Andy Wright set the pace in the boys race, crossing the finish line first in 16:22. That, and two other top-10 finishes by Jeff Olson (seventh, 17:06) and David Richardson (ninth, 17:08), helped the Grizz boys end up with 45 points, 11 better than second-place Crater. Ashland's girls team finished with 63 points, well off the 35-point pace set by East Anchorage. Kendall Clark led the Grizz girls with a third-place performance, finishing in 19:57. Also placing high for the AHS girls were: Hannah Clark (fifth, 20:18); Therese McCaffrey (ninth, 20:48); and Mariah Mayfield (24th, 22:08). Next up for the Grizz is Saturday's Rogue River Invitational. Email your... 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