Demons’ head coach John Robinette told the Durango High School boys lacrosse team, “Practice Monday,” after his seniors were honored Friday at DHS.
The Demons had just beaten Fruita Monument 14-7 on senior day, securing their first-ever win over the Wildcats and the best record in program history, but their minds were on a potential next game.
DHS (10-4, 6-3 Mountain League) is ranked No. 10 in Class 4A by MaxPreps.com and 11th by CHSAANow.com, setting the Demons up for a potential postseason berth, which would be the first in program history.
“I don’t know for sure; we’ll know Monday,” Robinette said. “We’ll know Monday. It just goes to show that setting goals, hard work, dedication, making a commitment and putting your individual needs below that of the team pay off.”
The path wasn’t so clear after the first quarter.
The Demons trailed Fruita Monument (4-9, 3-7 ML) 2-1 despite Trevor Gabbard finding the back of the net first with 8 minutes, 58 seconds to go.
“We were getting the opportunities; we just weren’t finishing,” said Jacob Boyle, son of Debra and Don Boyle. “Finally, we started finishing our shots.”
Boyle scored the first of his four goals 40 seconds into the second period to tie the game at 2.
DHS scored seven consecutive goals after that to take a 9-2 lead with 5:32 left in the third period.
“Once we started getting that momentum going and getting the perfect feeds, we started to see behind the goalie,” said Wesley Komick, son of Diane and Kirk Komick. “It elevated from there.”
Komick tied for the team lead with four goals, while fellow senior Jared Cook scored a hat trick for the Demons.
Both teams scored five times after Durango’s 7-0 run before things got chippy.
Fruita Monument was penalized twice in the final minute before referees called the game with 7.4 seconds remaining.
“At the end, their guy threw punches at our kid; that was uncalled for. I was super-proud of the way our guys handled it,” Robinette said. “Those guys had 11 penalties; we had one, and it’s because those guys were undisciplined.”
DHS kept its cool for its fifth win in six games, knowing they have a chance to play at least one more game.
“We knew we had some more games ahead of us and couldn’t get any ejections,” Boyle said.
The seeding committee will meet Monday morning.
The Demons will be on the practice field in full pads no matter what.
“It’s going to be business as usual,” Robinette said. “I’m going to bust their butts.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
Demons’ girls lacrosse will have its (senior) day
The Durango High School girls lacrosse team’s eight seniors have one more chance to play in front of their home fans.
They’ll take the field as Demons for the final time against Eagle Valley at 11 a.m. Saturday at DHS.
Durango’s most recent home game was supposed to be against Sandia Prep on April 26 but was canceled because of weather concerns. DHS (4-8, 2-4 Mountain League) won its last game 12-11 at Summit and has won two out of three.
Tymbree Hawkins and Jessie Sutherlin are tied for the team lead with 26 goals, and Hawkins, who recently committed to play college lacrosse at Fort Lewis College, has 18 assists.
Her sister, Shaelee Hawkins, paces the team with 31 groundballs.
DHS goalie Megan Pope has made 74 saves and has an 8.4 goals against average.
Eagle Valley (1-10, 1-9 ML) has lost five consecutive games.
kgrabowski@ durangoherald.com
Senior Day
Wyatt Ball
Taylor Begay
Jacob Boyle
Walker Brown
Jared Cook
Wesley Komick
Westly Moore
Duncan Whitley
Durango Herald
