After finishing its regular season 13-2 overall, the Durango High Schools girls soccer team scored the No. 3 seed for the Class 4A state playoffs.
The Demons will begin the tournament at 5 p.m. Wednesday, when DHS welcomes No. 30 Cañon City (8-5-2) to town. The two teams met once this season, with Durango winning 4-0 at Cañon City.
If the Demons win, they’ll host the winner of No. 14 Montrose and No. 19 Riverdale Ridge on Saturday. Grand Junction Central also made the playoffs as the No. 17 seed. League champion Fruita Monument (13-2) received the No. 11 seed for the 5A tournament.
Windsor (13-2) received the 4A tournament’s No. 1 seed, Evergreen (13-1-1) got the No. 2 seed, and Palmer Ridge (12-2-1) got the No. 4 seed, giving themselves home-field advantage for the first three rounds. The semifinals will take place at the University of Northern Colorado, and the championship will be held at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.
Despite finishing their 2022 regular season on a three-match winning streak and placing third in the 3A Southwest, Bayfield’s hopes of being the third SWL side selected for the 32-team state tournament were ultimately unrealized.
SWL champion Montezuma-Cortez (5-1 SWL, 8-4 overall) received a respect-lacking No. 31 seed and will play at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in Broomfield at No. 2 Jefferson Academy.
Southwest runner-up Alamosa (4-2 SWL, 8-6 overall) received the No. 28 seed and will travel to Parker to face No. 5 Lutheran (11-4) at 4 p.m. Thursday.
With BHS (9-6 overall) left on the outside looking in, Federal Heights-based The Pinnacle (8-7) squeaked into the postseason as the bracket’s No. 32 seed.
Information gleaned from the Colorado High School Activities Association girls soccer webpage indicated five league champions would automatically qualify for the state tournament bracket and remaining spots would be awarded based on an Ratings Percentage Index system. The bracket was then seeded based on a three-pronged calculation of CHSAA RPI, the CHSAANow.com coaches’ poll, and MaxPreps rankings.
Neither M-CHS nor AHS cracked MaxPreps’ top 32 in Class 3A, falling in at Nos. 34 and 33, respectively, while Bayfield was 39th.
All told, nine Metro squads were selected, followed by five from the Western Slope teams. The Tri-Peaks and Frontier Leagues each had four teams picked, and the Confluence had three.
— Joel Priest contributed to this story
