The Durango High School girls soccer team is moving on.
Durango, the No. 3 seed for the Class 4A state tournament, started the playoffs with a 4-1 win over No. 30 Cañon City on Wednesday in the first round at DHS.
“It feels great,” said DHS head coach Melissa Halonen. “We want to be playing our best soccer and that first half especially was the best half we’ve played all year.”
The coach said the team has been working a lot on building out of the back and creating space. It’s starting to click.
“They finally saw it tonight,” Halonen said. “We’re trying to defend with the ball and be composed enough to find passes. Even if it’s in our defensive third, if we have the ball it’s OK.”
The Demons jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first half, with Mason Rowland earning the hat trick. Rowland’s first two goals, however, came with her arms and not her feet.
Throwing the ball in about 19 minutes into the game, Rowland threw the ball high and far and hard, deflecting off the goalie’s hands and into the net for a goal.
About five minutes later, Rowland did it again from the other side of the field. Her long throw landed in a pile of players and bounced in the goal to give Durango a 2-0 lead.
“You can’t have something like that and not use it,” Halonen said about Rowland’s throw ins. “We’ve built on it because it’s so dangerous … you don’t even see professional players throw it like that.”
Rowland’s third goal was more traditional. She received a nice leading pass to get behind Cañon City’s defense and then beat the goalie with a hard shot.
In the second half, Carter Neiman and Emy Mattox cut off runs and kicked the ball away to prevent the Tigers from shooting.
With a little over eight minutes left, however, Cañon City got a corner kick opportunity. DHS kicked one corner out of bounds, but the Tigers got another one and this time they found Korenn Gerl in the box and Gerl kicked it in the goal to cut DHS’ lead to 3-1.
“Giving up a corner is always tough, but with the wind the way it is they’re dangerous,” Halonen said. The wind was blowing so hard at times that it actually blew one of the goals out of place in the first half.
After the goal, the Demons answered back with just under four minutes remaining when Makayla Wayman scored from the left side of the box.
“We were really hoping to get one in the second half,” Halonen said, noting that it gave the team a boost to its confidence.
Cañon City, the 4A Colorado Springs Metro South league champs, finishes its season 8-6-2 with the loss
The Demons improved to 14-2 overall and will next host No. 14 Montrose in the second round on Saturday. Montrose beat Riverdale Ridge, 2-1, in its first-round game Wednesday.
“This group really wants to continue,” Halonen said. “Why not now? Why not continue to build and get better so we can make it until the end?”
