Durango tripled its season goal total in a hurry Saturday.
After four games to open the season, the Durango High School girls soccer team had scored four goals and had a 1-3 overall record. In the home opener Saturday against Aspen, the Demons poured in eight goals, including five in the second half, to secure a 8-0 victory against the Skiers.
“It’s big because we’ve been struggling to score goals,” DHS head coach Dalon Parker said. “It’s been hard trying to put the ball in the back of the net playing these big schools and trying to compete. We need to work on shooting still, obviously, but it was good to see eight goals go in.”
Durango had played four Class 5A powers to open the season and lost by a combined 12-0 score against three of those teams who are all in the top 10 in their classification. Playing Aspen, a Class 3A team, was welcome relief for the Demons.
“These last 5A teams we’ve been playing tore our confidence away,” said Durango senior midfielder Chloe Taylor, who finished with one goal and one assist Saturday. “Playing this team was reassuring that we’re still here and we still got it.”
It took Durango 14 minutes for its first goal Saturday, as Jael Larson struck first. Madeline Dearien scored only a few minutes later, as the first goal seemed to energize the DHS attack.
Shortly before halftime, Lydia Larson blasted a goal to the top right corner of the net to give the Demons a 3-0 lead at halftime.
DHS was relentless in the second half, as Lane Arnwine scored consecutive goals by using her superior speed to get around the Aspen defense.
Taylor, who had missed an open net moments before Arnwine’s second goal, found the net moments after Arnwine’s second tally to give Durango a 6-0 lead. Autumn Stevens rounded out the Durango scoring with a pair of goals in the game’s final 15 minutes.
Durango goalkeeper Emily Badgley was never tested by the Aspen attack and easily handled every ball that came her way.
It was the first game for the girls varsity team on the new turf field at DHS. Arnwine said the field played a lot faster than the grass field at the Riverview Sports Complex that the team called home for years. She said playing on the turf has been a real positive in the way the team likes to play.
Durango will once again hit the road next week to face Faith Christian, a top 3A program, and Class 4A Pueblo West before beginning league play. When the regular-season ends, the 1-3 start may actually favor the Demons when it comes to playoff seeding. It will give the Demons a favorable RPI. Though the lopsided losses are tough to swallow, Parker knows playing those teams can mean just as much as beating those teams.
For the players, the focus is now on improving a whole with the goal of mounting a winning streak.
“We want to keep winning and build our sense of team and working together,” Arnwine said. “It’s super important when we play these big schools. They underestimate us, but we’ll come out strong.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
