The Durango High School girls soccer and girls lacrosse teams have won a combined 14 consecutive games, and the winning streak continued this weekend, with both teams picking up two victories on the road.
Durango girls soccer’s winning streak extended to nine games after the Demons won 2-1 at Fruita Monument on Friday and 1-0 at Palisade on Saturday.
The Demons improved to 9-3 overall and 8-0 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League after the two wins. Fruita Monument dropped to 6-3-3 overall and 4-1-3 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League and Palisade dropped to 6-4-2 overall and 4-3-1 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League.
Seniors Emma Hyder and Bella Saren each scored for the Demons against Fruita while senior Peyton Cioppa and sophomore Jensen Quenzler had assists. Durango junior goalkeeper Ryne Neiman had three saves.
“The first half was definitely our best half,” Durango girls soccer head coach Zac Keeler said. “We started off with the wind and it was quite a windy day. Peyton gave Bella an excellent through ball, which brought their keeper out of position at the 18-yard box and she (Saren) slotted it in the first seven minutes of the game and really shocked Fruita.”
Shortly after, Quenzler played a ball from the right side to Hyder, who settled and finished for a 2-0 lead only 13 minutes into the game.
Later in the first half, Neiman had to do something she hadn’t done all season: save a penalty kick. Senior Lauren McClellan and Wildcats sophomore Kenna Celayeta made contact in the 18-yard box and McClellan was called for the foul, resulting in a penalty kick.
Neiman then dove right, made the penalty kick save and also saved the rebound shot. The Demons led 2-0 at halftime.
Fruita responded in the 58th minute in the second half. The Wildcats played an indirect kick into the 18-yard box that was finished to cut Durango’s lead to 2-1.
Neiman then came up big in the second half. A Wildcat broke through the Durango defense and caught Neiman off her line. But Neiman used her experience to cut off the Fruita player’s angle and forced her to miss the goal, according to Keeler.
The Wildcats didn’t challenge Neiman after that and the Demons got on the bus victorious.
Keeler said it was tough to score on Fruita in the second half with how disciplined the Fruita defense was. He said the Fruita defense did a great job of tracking the ball and getting back on defense.
On Saturday, sophomore Lila Scherer-Sickler had the lone goal against Palisade with sophomore Aletta Holley finishing with the assist.
“It was fresh in our minds how we wanted to try to play against them and trying to not have a repeat of last Tuesday,” Keeler said about the Palisade game. “But I have to give their goalkeeper the most credit I can. When we're voting for the players of the league, she's one of my top nominees for it, with just save after save. They put five or six people back there on their defensive line and our players were having pretty much the same issue connecting our passes through the final third.”
Keeler said he took some of his starters out in the 20th minute to refresh them on what they worked on in practice to prepare for Palisade.
The move paid off. In the 35th minute, Holly sent a cross in from the right side. Scherer-Sickler made a run across the goal to the near post and connected on Holly’s cross, sending it into the top of the net.
Keeler was happy with how his defense played; Neiman was never challenged.
The Demons played Telluride Tuesday evening and won 7-0. Durango plays at Dirks Field at Fort Lewis College against Grand Junction Central on Thursday at 5 p.m.
Girls lacrosse dominates opponents by combined 21 goals
The Durango High School girls lacrosse team had no trouble on the road last weekend, dominating Rampart 13-1 on Friday and Liberty 12-3 on Saturday.
Durango has won five consecutive games and is 9-2 overall and 6-1 in the 4A Mountain West League. Rampart fell to 4-8 overall and Liberty fell to 2-11 overall.
It wasn’t the perfect start to the weekend, as the Demons arrived only 30 minutes before the game against Rampart on Friday. Elliot pulled his two sophomore stars, Teagan Frausto and Indie Eaton, aside before the game. He wanted to reinforce to them that they need to have confidence in themselves and everyone in the program knows what they’re capable of.
The late arrival didn’t seem to matter for the Demons and Elliot’s talk paid off as Frausto scored three goals in the first eight minutes to put Durango ahead early. The Demons led 5-0 after the first quarter and 7-1 at halftime, according to Durango girls lacrosse head coach Eric Elliot.
“We did a really good job of dominating on draw control; it's pretty hard to score when you don't have the ball,” Elliot said. “We were pretty good about that. The weather was about as terrible as it can get. It was really foggy. I lost track of the ball about halfway through the first quarter and couldn't see where the ball was most of the game. We did a really good job of making smart passes and not turning the ball over by making really far passes or anything like that. Everybody played really smart.”
Senior Silvie Bosmans added three goals, senior Sofia Naffziger and junior Taylor Babcock each had two goals. Naffziger had her 100th career point in the win.
Elliot was happy to get his bench into the game and had players playing out of position in the second half as the Demons cruised to victory. A lot of Durango’s bench players don’t have a lot of experience playing lacrosse, so playing time gives them confidence, according to Elliot.
On Saturday, senior Jordan Meininger had a stellar day, leading the Demons with five goals to lead the Demons in the victory against Liberty. Naffziger added two goals.
Durango celebrates senior day with its final home game against Santa Fe Prep on Friday at 5 p.m.
Baseball struggles in two losses to Fruita Monument
After winning nine of 10 games, the Durango baseball team fell back to earth over the weekend, losing 7-4 at Fruita Monument on Friday and 11-1 on Saturday.
Durango fell to 11-6 overall and 3-3 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League. Fruita improved 9-8 overall and 5-0 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League.
On Friday, the teams were tied 0-0 after two innings but Fruita scored three runs in the third inning and one in the fourth to take a 4-0 lead. The Demons responded with three runs in the fifth but Fruita scored three in the sixth to take a 7-4 lead into the seventh. Durango couldn’t score in the top of the seventh and the game ended.
Junior Dylan Burns led the Demons with two hits. Junior Sam Clark pitched five innings and allowed seven hits and four runs while throwing a strikeout.
On Saturday, Durango led 1-0 after the first inning but things went downhill from there. Fruita scored four runs in the second innings and three in the third for a commanding 7-1 lead. The Wildcats added two runs in the fifth and the sixth for the dominant victory.
Fruita outhit Durango 10-2 and junior Dawson McInnes had the two hits for the Demons.
McInnes pitched four innings for the Demons, allowing seven hits and five runs while striking out five batters. Senior Jack Englund pitched for two innings and allowed three hits, six runs and striking out four batters.
Durango plays at home against Montrose on Friday at 3 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
