After posting the best regular season mark in the history of Durango High School, the 14-1 Demons’ road to the Colorado High School Activities Association 4A State Championship was unveiled Sunday.
Durango was awarded the seventh seed in the bracket of 32, and will host Pueblo South on Wednesday at Durango High School. The time of the game has not been determined. Whoever wins will face the winner between No. 10 Skyview and No. 23 Centaurus.
“I’m happy with where we’re at and I think it’s definitely in the ballpark of where we should be,” Demons head coach Dalon Parker said. “We’re happy to be able to play in front of our fans and we worked hard to host this game. The teams they seeded higher than us are really good teams.”
The only seed higher than Durango in Quadrant 4 is second-seeded Lewis-Palmer, which plays in the same 5A/4A Pikes Peak League as Cheyenne Mountain, the tournament’s top seed.
If the Demons (14-1, 7-1 5A/4A Southwestern League) are to face Lewis-Palmer down the road, they’ll have to get through Pueblo South (10-5, 4-1 4A South Central) first. Durango and their first round opponents have played a few common opponents, and the results should gives Demons fans some confidence.
Pueblo South lost to Fruita Monument 2-0. Durango split with the Wildcats, but recently beat them 7-0 on the road. The Demons also shut out Pueblo Centennial 3-0, while the Colts lost both matches to Centennial, 3-1 and 1-0.
“I think it’s a good matchup for us,” Parker said. “But, you can look at stuff on paper and try to imagine how it might go, and you never know until the teams get out there.”
More than anything, Parker’s team has some serious momentum going. The Demons steamrolled through the regular season, losing only one game to Fruita before rattling off 12 consecutive wins to finish the season.
In the 15 games DHS played, 12 ended in the opponents being shut out by goalkeeper Trey Furnas and the impenetrable line of defense in front of him.
Offensively, Elijah Fenton leads the Demons with 10 goals and Max Wilson followed with eight goals. They lead a potent DHS attack that saw 10 players score three or more goals this season.
“No matter what we’ve done already or who we’re scheduled to play, it’s going to be a tough road,” Parker said. “That’s just the way this tournament is, and it’s the way it should be.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
