Senior day couldn’t have gone better for the Durango High School girls soccer team as the Demons won 3-0 over Fruita Monument.
It was a beautiful spring afternoon for a soccer game and the Demons played a beautiful brand of soccer. Durango moved the ball through the midfield and up the middle for some fantastic scoring chances.
Fruita couldn’t get anything going offensively against the stout Durango defense, kicking long balls and praying a Wildcat would be on the other end. The Demons played plenty of players as they cruised to victory for their 12th consecutive win and a perfect 10-0 league record.
“I’m extremely proud about the performance both the whole season and this game in general,” Durango head coach Zac Keeler said. “They worked hard this week trying to make sure Fruita didn’t have a chance with us and they played the game plan perfectly.”
Durango improved to 12-3 overall and 10-0 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League. The Demons won the league for the first time since 2021 and have the most wins in a season since 2022. Durango scored 43 goals in league play and only gave up three.
Seniors Bella Saren and Emma Hyder scored for the Demons and sophomore Annika Lundquist also had a goal.
Fruita fell to 8-4-3 overall and 5-2-3 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League.
Before the game, Durango’s seven seniors, Lauren McClellan, Emily McVaugh, Peyton Cioppa, Lilly Fitzpatrick, Emma Hyder, Saren and Amelia Scott, were honored in a senior day ceremony.
“It means a lot to us,” Hyder said. “We’ve been playing together for so long that it all came together. It was really good to win as a team with all of us out there.”
The Demons struck four minutes into the game. Scott played a pass to Lundquist on the right side. Lundquist dribbled the ball toward the keeper and slotted the goal home for the first goal.
Durango did a great job limiting Fruita’s attempts early on with strong tackles in the middle of the field and intercepting passes.
Fruita and Durango mostly battled in the middle third of the field, with neither team able to connect on the final pass into the attacking third.
The Wildcats’ main source of offense was playing long balls from the defense or the midfield to the Wildcats’ speedy center forward Brook Cox. She threatened to break away but Scott did a good job of using her body to either shield Cox from the ball or go in with a strong tackle. Junior goalkeeper Ryne Neiman got off her line with about 15 minutes left in the half to clear the ball away to keep the clean sheet.
Durango had some fantastic passing in the final 15 minutes in the midfield and its excellent passing paid off. Emma Hyder played a beautiful through ball down the center from the middle of the field to Saren. She split the two center backs and ran onto the ball. Saren dribbled in a perfectly placed her shot in the lower right corner for a 2-0 lead with 5:49 left in the half.
“We were testing out how they wanted to hold their (defensive) line and we practiced it a bit on Thursday,” Keeler said. “When our give-and-gos weren’t going to work, we wanted to make those through passes and they had their high line there on the attacking third. We found it and took advantage of it.”
The Demons continued to dominate possession in the second half. Fruita’s long ball tries disappeared and Durango moved the ball well in the middle of the field.
Hyder used her height to score the Demons’ third goal. A cross came into the 18-yard box and Hyder headed it into the right side of the net with 27:40 left. The goal came at a cost, though, as Hyder rolled her ankle and was down on the field. She was helped off the field.
Durango dodged a bullet only a few minutes later. Cox ran on to a rare through ball, split two Durango defenders and was taken down inside the top left of the 18-yard box, resulting in a penalty kick. She skied the kick over the crossbar and the game remained 3-0 with 25 minutes left.
The Demons continued to attack up the middle. A crowd surrounded the ball around the 30-yard line and a short through ball was played through the middle to Saren. With defenders on both sides of her, Saren hit a shot that was heading for the top corner. The Fruita goalkeeper had other ideas and dove through the air to make the stop with 17 minutes left.
Fruita didn’t have any offensive chances in the last 15 minutes. Durango’s defense was strong and in unison to preserve the shutout.
“The off the ball press on their goal kicks, not allowing them to have much more than a long hit to Ryne … we’ve been working on that and it’s been making a lot of teams hit it hard and long for us to gobble it up,” Keeler said.
Durango will find out its seeding and matchup in the 4A bracket on Sunday. The Demons are expected to have the fourth or fifth seed in the bracket and should have at least two home games.
Last season, the Demons were upset in the first round and look to avenge that loss and make a deep playoff run.
“There’s a lot of chemistry on our team this year and we’re taking everything we do in practice and applying it really well on the field,” McVaugh said. “We’re really good at adapting to who we go against, so no matter who we go against, we have a really good shot. I’m really proud of this team this season.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
