The Durango High School girls lacrosse team got a San Luis sweep.
The Demons beat Pueblo West 11-6 on Saturday morning, then beat Santa Fe Prep 9-7 after what DHS head coach Jenni Darlow said was less than a five-minute break between games at Adams State in Alamosa.
“Neither game was our best but good enough to win,” Darlow said.
Behind five total goals, an assist and five draw controls from Tymbree Hawkins in Game 1, the Demons jumped to a 5-1 lead and held on.
Hawkins only missed one shot.
“We never got a huge lead, but I felt comfortable the whole time,” Darlow said.
“We did a lot of passes to no one, but we did good enough. In that game, we really didn’t have the ball in our defensive end very much.”
The team even managed to play nearly two minutes in the second half with three players out on yellow cards before the final whistle.
After a short break, the Demons jumped back on the field for Santa Fe Prep.
“And we didn’t want that one to be comfortable because we gave Santa Fe a 3-0 lead, and then we decided to tie it. Then, we gave them a 5-3 lead, and then we decided to tie it.”
After a 5-all halfway break, the DHS girls finally broke away and wouldn’t trail again.
Darlow said the Demons struggled early against a “really athletic” Sundevils goalkeeper.
“And we weren’t making her work that hard at the beginning of the game – taking shots from too far out, when we had the chance to run it in, not doing it, not doing anything to make her work,” Darlow said.
Durango’s freshman keeper Cheyenne Coffey, however, did plenty of work. She made nive saves, a handful of them on free position shots.
“She said she was nervous, but yeah, she did great,” Darlow said.
But the player of the game was Deryn Candelaria, who drove several charging calls in addition to disrupting Santa Fe’s attack.
“I love how she’s playing defense,” Darlow said. “There’s no quit in her. She always wants to know what she can do better. She wants to be able to do everything. Sometimes I have to tell her, ‘You did everything you could,’ and she doesn’t like that answer.”
DHS will play at Mountain League opponent Aspen at 4 p.m. Friday.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
