Durango’s High School girls lacrosse team has been in some very close games recently, but Tuesday night’s first-round playoff game against Pueblo West was not one of them.
The Demons had two one-goal games with Telluride last week. The only time Durango was in a one-goal game with Pueblo West was when the score was 1-0. The Demons raced out to a 7-0 lead and dominated the Cyclones in a 24-6 rout to advance to the second round against Air Academy on Thursday.
Pueblo West just wasn’t on the same level as Durango. The Cyclones didn’t have the athletes or stamina to keep up with Durango’s transition offense. Pueblo West couldn’t find space against Durango’s defense consistently. The Demons dominated the draws and the ground balls as 10 different Durango players scored a season-high 24 goals.
The Demons got off to a fantastic start, using their speed and transition offense to build a 7-0 lead. Eaton had two goals early, and Reynolds showed her speed and scoring ability by running up from defense to score from close range.
“It was a good game,” Durango head coach Eric Elliot said. “We wanted to work on some stuff in the second half that we didn’t really get an opportunity to work on. We did a good job of spreading the wealth, so that was good.”
Elliot wanted his team to have an assist for every goal in the second half, but it was one of the few things the Demons didn’t accomplish.
Durango, seeded No. 10 in the 4A state playoffs, improved to 10-4 overall. Pueblo West dropped to 1-11 overall after it was seeded No. 23. Junior Indie Eaton led the Demons with four goals and two assists. Freshman Janelle Dingler, senior Taylor Babcock, junior Teagan Frausto and sophomore Keelyn Reynolds all had hat tricks for the Demons. Junior Jody Holden had six saves in goal.
The Demons got off to a fantastic start, using their speed and transition offense to get out to a 7-0 lead. Eaton had two goals early, and Reynolds showed her speed and scoring ability by running up from defense to score from close range.
“We were winning the draw,” Elliot said. “If you can win the draw, especially with our team’s speed, it’s pretty tough to slow us down if we have that.”
Pueblo West had a few bright moments in the first quarter by winning a couple of draws and moving the ball on offense to find open scorers on the crease. Pueblo West scored two consecutive goals to cut the deficit to 7-2. Durango responded as Reynolds and Frausto both scored in transition, with Frausto’s goal at the buzzer to increase Durango’s lead to 10-3 going into the second quarter.
The Durango defense got even more involved in the scoring festivities to start the second quarter, with senior Scarlett Ramsey and sophomore Kaitlyn Downey scoring to start the quarter.
Pueblo West could do nothing against Durango’s transition offense. The Demons were either winning the draw or picking up all the ground balls, and then they were zooming away from the opposition on the turf and on the scoreboard. Durango also showed some good cutting in its set offense for some easy goals. The Demons led 16-3 at the half with a running clock going.
After the Telluride loss, Elliot wanted his team to work on their ball security and gathering ground balls. He changed the team’s defensive approach with how Durango guards the goalie because he wanted the Demons to man-mark, and Durango had some success with that.
Durango kept its foot on the gas to start the third with four goals in the first five minutes. Dingler had the highlight goal of the day, a wrap-around, behind-the-back dump shot on the crease to make it 20-3 Durango.
“Most of the fourth quarter, I had all new players in,” Elliot said. “I had my two defensive stars, both seniors, on the attack side, to see if they can get a goal or two. It gave me a chance to see what next year’s defense may look like. It’s always good to see the new kids work together.”
The Demons will advance to play No. 7 seed Air Academy in the second round at Air Academy on Thursday at 6 p.m. The Kadets are 10-4 overall. Air Academy also beat Pueblo West, 10-0, and beat Palmer Ridge and Rampart, two teams Durango lost to.