The Durango girls soccer team has been playing like a top team in the state recently, and the proof is in the pudding with the Demons taking down two undefeated teams last weekend on the road.
Ranked third in 4A in the Colorado High School Activities Association’s Selection & Seeding Index, the Demons beat Crested Butte, 1-0, on Friday and Grand Junction, 2-0, on Saturday. Durango improved to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League. Crested Butte dropped to 4-1-2 overall after the loss; Grand Junction moved to 5-1 overall and 2-0 in 4A/5A Southwestern League play.
Senior Josie Phare had the lone goal against Crested Butte as the Demons’ run of quick starts continued. Junior Ellis Campbell had the assist, and senior Ryne Neiman finished with six saves in goal for the Demons.
“Our first goal was in the first six minutes,” Durango girls soccer head coach Zac Keeler said. “It was something we wanted to continue to do to keep teams on their heels, and we’re pretty successful with our buildup … Lila (Scherer-Sickler) played an excellent through ball to her (Campbell), where Ellis beat her last defender and crossed it to the back post, where Josie was at.”
The Demons’ defense did a great job in the first half of forcing Crested Butte to take all of its shots from 20-25 yards out, making Neiman’s job of saving the ball easy. Durango had some good possession in the first half, but the cold and elevation led to the Demons’ struggling to find that extra pass to create a great shot.
Due to Durango’s defensive efforts, Keeler gave his woman of the match award to junior defender Lettie Holley. Keeler was impressed with how she dealt with Crest Butte’s offense in one-on-one settings by stealing the ball and distributing the ball to Durango’s offense.
Durango’s early cushion certainly didn’t hurt Holley and the defense. Holley focused on moving her feet, not stabbing on defense, and using the Demons’ outside players to start the offense. She also feels very comfortable playing in front of a four-year starter in Neiman.
“It doesn’t get in my head at all,” Holley said about the early lead. “I still play the same, but it’s good to know we do have some cushion. I’m going to play just as hard because if there’s one mistake, it could easily turn into a 1-1 game. So I tried to stay the same or even step it up because my offense did their job.”
Not only were the Demons the first team to beat Grand Junction, the Demons were the first team to score on them. Durango scored both its goals in the first half, with Phare and Campbell finding the back of the net.
Durango got off to another quick start, with Campbell stealing the ball at the top of the 18-yard box and firing a shot into the top corner about two minutes into the game.
Campbell, the woman of the match against Grand Junction, credited her recent success to a change in position. Instead of being on the outside, she’s switched to an attacking midfielder position in the middle. Junior Lila Scherer-Sickler has switched with her from the middle to the outside. Campbell credits the team bonding Durango did in the preseason to an enhanced connection on the field.
About 15 minutes into the first half, the Demons struck again. Durango moved the ball through the midfield, and sophomore Lia Schowalter fired off a great shot from about 18 yards out. The Tiger keeper made the stop, but Phare was there to put the rebound in the back of the net.
Durango held on in the second half as it finished with eight shots on goal and Neiman made five saves.
“We noticed they were attacking up the middle a lot,” Keeler said. “Lettie, coming off a star performance against Crested Butte, rolled that performance into the Grand Junction game and really made it a hard decision for woman of the match … she was on top of all the one-on-one tackles, she was winning balls out of the air, and she was juking out Grand Junction players left and right.”
The Demons return home against Grand Junction Central on Saturday at 1 p.m.
Depth was a question mark for the Durango girls golf team after losing two of its top four players from last season, but the Demons seem to have some answers after an impressive win at the PV Panther Girls Invitational on Monday.
Senior Riley Harms and sophomore Kailen Noonan stepped up for Durango, with its top two players, senior Jayden Craig and junior Dylan Livingston, having off days on the tricky San Juan Country Club greens.
“It was a small field, and it’s a pretty tight golf course, so it’s a little tougher in some aspects,” Durango girls golf head coach Kirk Rawles said. “There’s out of bounds on every hole, if not one side, on both sides.”
Durango won with a team score of 79-over par with five teams scoring. Piedra Vista was second at 85-over par and Montezuma-Cortez was third at 125-over par. New Mexico’s scoring is a bit different than Colorado’s, with each team’s top four players making up the team scoring instead of the top three in Colorado.
The San Juan Country Club’s greens were in great shape and were rolling fast, according to Rawles. He said it’s the course’s main line of defense against low scoring.
Harms was Durango’s best finisher in sixth with a personal-best 13-over par to finish tied-fifth. Hayden Dan from Kirtland Central finished first at 4-over par.
After Harms was outside the top four last year for the Demons, she worked hard in the summer to improve her game with Shea Sena at Elevated Golf Academy at Dalton Ranch, according to Rawles. She finished Monday’s round with seven pars, nine bogeys and two double bogeys.
“That’s a really solid round for never seeing the course,” Rawles said about Harms. “There are some tricky places out there to try to negotiate. She did a great job finding places to hit it and not getting in a whole lot of trouble. The two holes that I did see her play, she hit the ball really solid. If she miss-hit the shot, she missed it in the right spot.”
Behind Harms was Craig in eighth at 20-over par. It was an up-and-down round with a birdie, some pars, bogeys, double bogeys and two quadruple bogeys. Noonan was right behind Craig in ninth at 21-over par with a similar scorecard. Livingston’s struggles on the greens limited her to 12th at 25-over par.
The Demons will go to Montrose next week to play at the Links at Cobble Creek on Monday and the Black Canyon Golf Course on Tuesday.
Close-game experience is important to have for a team with playoff aspirations, and the Durango girls lacrosse team got that last weekend with its 1-1 record on its latest road trip.
The Demons had their first 5A win under head coach Eric Elliot on Friday with an 8-7 victory over Legend. Durango then turned around with low numbers from injury and illness and lost at Rampart, 9-8, in triple overtime.
“I’m a little disappointed that we lost on Saturday; that was a real winnable game,” Elliot said. “But a triple overtime game, we didn’t lose it for lack of effort. We left it all out there. It was a back-and-forth game the whole time. They just got one by us in the last overtime.”
Durango moved to 5-2 overall and 3-1 in the 4A Mountain West League after the road trip. Legend dropped to 2-5 overall after the Durango loss. The Demons were led by freshman Janelle Dingler’s four goals and senior Taylor Babcock’s three goals. Junior goalie Jody Holden finished with 14 saves.
“They’ve been the major force in our offense for the past couple of weeks,” Elliot said about Dingler and Babcock. “Indie (Eaton) and Teagan (Frausto) do a pretty good job of getting the ball downfield because they’re attackers, but I play them at the restraining line. If the fast break is not there, that’s when Janelle and Taylor get down there and get into it on the offensive side.”
The Demons led wire-to-wire, but couldn’t extend their lead too much without Legend responding. Durango’s draw play was a little inconsistent, which also helped Legend stay in the game. Elliot wanted his team to slow it down late in the game, but Durango kept the pedal down, and Elliot said the Demons didn’t protect their lead as well as they could have.
Rampart improved to 4-2 overall after its overtime win over Durango. The Demons were led by Dingler’s three goals, Frausto and Babcock’s two goals each, and Holden’s nine saves.
Durango led nearly the entire game, but only had one sub on the sidelines and the Demons ran out of gas late in the game. Elliot estimated that Rampart had double the players as the Demons, so he was proud of his team’s conditioning to stay in the game.
Rampart was led by Chiara Marjaniemi’s six goals.
“She’s was really sneaky,” Elliot said. “She could get around and sneak in the inside spots. She had a pretty good stick, pretty good control and she got us pretty good.”
The Demons stay on the road to face Fruita Monument on Friday at 4 p.m.
The Durango girls tennis team was on both sides of a dominant performance last weekend, losing 6-1 at Grand Junction on Saturday before winning 7-0 at Grand Junction Central on Saturday.
Grand Junction dominated the final scoreboard, but a lot of those matches were close losses for Durango. Sophomore Ella Claassen got the lone win for Durango in No. 2 singles, beating Grace DeHerrera 6-4, 2-6, 1-0 (14-12). In No. 3 singles, junior Annabeth Hanson lost in three sets for the Demons, 6-3, 2-6, 0-1 (3-10). The No. 3 doubles pairing of sophomore Willa Rider and junior Zoe Boespflug also lost in three sets for Durango, 6-3, 2-6, 0-1 (10-12).
It was an impressive bounce-back performance for the Demons against Grand Junction Central. None of the five matches went into the third set, with junior Natalie Christensen winning in No. 1 singles, 6-1, 6-0. Claassen followed that up with a 6-0, 6-1 victory in No. 2 singles.
Hanson bounced back with a 6-0, 6-0 win in No. 3 singles. Senor Madelyn Agre and sophomore Piper Reese had the closest match for the Demons in No. 1 doubles, but still got the job done with a 6-4, 6-4 win. Durango’s Rider and Boespflug controlled the No. 2 doubles match, 6-1, 6-1.
Durango plays at Pueblo West on Thursday at 5 p.m.
After the Durango High School track and field girls 4×100-meter relay time was broken on March 28 for the first time since 1998, it only took another week for a new low time.
The quartet of senior Juliana McKown, freshman Karleigh Kinn, sophomore Hailey Tripp and freshman Lydia Orlowski broke 50 seconds, finishing first by over five seconds in 49.93 seconds at the Fear The Gap meet at Farmington High School on Saturday.
It was the highlight of the meet for the Demons as girls finished sixth out of 10 team with 34 points. Farmington High School finished first with 103 points. The Durango boys finished fourth with 43 points as Farmington won with 151 points. The team scores could have been better for Durango, but part of the team was competing at Ignacio’s meet.
Hailey Tripp finished second in the girls 100 in 12.99. Sophomore Maeve Daley finished second in the girls 400 in 1:02.21.
On the boys side, senior Seb Tripp won the 200 in 22.67 and finished second in the 100 at 11.09. Durango track and field head coach Johnny Bertrand said if it wasn’t for a bad start, Tripp would have set a personal best and would have broken 11 seconds.
Junior George Preston finished second in the boys 400 with a PR of 51.73. Preston also had a PR in the boys long jump, finishing second in 20 feet and 8.50 inches. Senior Oliver Clark finished third in the boys discus with a 141-01 throw. Clark was also second in the boys shot put in 43-01.
The Demons will split up again on Saturday, with part of the team going to the Bob Archibeque Invitational in Cortez, and the other part will go to the Phil Wertman Invitational in Grand Junction.
The Durango boys lacrosse team had its first chance to see a top team in its class, and it didn’t go well, with two blowout losses.
Grand Junction is ranked fourth in 4A in the CHSAA Selection & Seeding Index at 8-1 overall. The last two of those wins were a 22-2 home win against Durango on Friday and a 21-0 home win on Saturday against the Demons.
Durango dropped to 2-5 overall and 1-5 in the 4A Mountain League with the losses. The Demons face Glenwood Springs at home on Thursday at 3 p.m.