The Durango girls lacrosse team had enough close games for an entire season in the last week. The Demons beat Grand Junction on the road on Friday 10-9 and then lost at Grand Junction on Saturday 9-8 before beating Telluride at home on Monday 14-13 in double overtime.
Durango improved to 4-1 overall and 4-1 in the 4A Mountain West League after the 2-1 stretch. Grand Junction fell to 2-4 overall and 1-2 in the 4A Mountain West after the two Durango games. Telluride fell to 3-4 overall and 2-1 in the 4A Mountain West.
“They understand what it is,” Durango girls lacrosse head coach Eric Elliot said about his team playing in big games. “It's okay to bend a little bit as long as you don't break. That was a big focus of Saturday's team pep talk about how we took the best that they could give us and we bent, but we didn't break. That really played into the result of Monday's game as well.”
Durango got off to a great start on Friday and led 5-1 after the first quarter and 8-2 at halftime. But Grand Junction responded in the second half and battled back with the play of sophomore Alexis Campbell and senior Emma Diaz.
Elliot said the Tigers figured out how to attack the Demons in the second half. He also said Campbell and Diaz made plays in both games and that there was nothing he could do as head coach when they were making tough catches and finishes.
But Durango senior Kyana Newcomer-Ball came up clutch with a career milestone as Grand Junction made it a game. Newcomer-Ball picked up her 100th career ground ball at a great time to help the Demons regain possession and seal the game.
Seniors Sofia Naffziger and Silvie Bosmans each finished the game with three goals and an assist to lead the Demons. Senior goalie Fiona Chandler finished with 11 saves.
Campbell finished with five goals and an assist for Grand Junction and Diaz had three goals.
On Saturday, the Demons were involved in another close game with the Tigers as it was a tie game after the first quarter before Durango trailed at half. The Demons battled back to tie the game in the fourth with about two minutes left before Grand Junction scored late in the fourth for the win.
Elliot said the team didn’t want to settle for overtime and was aggressive on offense with the game tied, but the Demons forced a shot and turned the ball over.
Seniors Willa Anderson and Naffziger each had two goals to lead the Demons. Chandler had nine saves for Durango.
Campbell had three goals and three assists and Diaz had five goals for the Tigers.
On Monday, the Demons faced a lot of adversity at home against Telluride, falling behind 5-1 after the first quarter. Elliot said the Grand Junction games took an emotional and physical toll on Durango and the Demons came out a little flat to start the game against Telluride.
Telluride led 7-3 at halftime and things only improved for the guests after the restart; Miners sophomores Ruby Lake and Seven Tudor scored during the first 2:30 of the third quarter, increasing the Miners’ lead to 9-3.
The Demons had the answer and went on an astonishing 10-2 run to take a 13-11 lead with less than two minutes left in the game. But Telluride recovered and scored two goals, including the tying goal with 23.9 seconds left, to tie the game and send it into overtime.
Then, in the second overtime, Durango sophomore Indie Eaton beat Telluride goalie Quinn Paczosa with 1:21 remaining in the sudden-death session to earn the Demons a 14-13 victory.
“Indie is the kid when she gets the ball with a little bit of maneuvering space; she's almost like a cheat code,” Elliot said. “Watching her move around the field, she's really fast and she's really quick. But so far this season, in all of our games, we've had a different player step up in every game and really put the team on their shoulders … Indie really answered it in the second half and she took it over. She wanted the ball in her stick and she made it happen. Whenever she had the ball in her stick she did everything that the team asked her to do and then a little bit more. It was pretty special to watch.”
Eaton finished with four goals for the Demons and Bosmans also had four goals and an assist. Chandler had 17 saves and her first save of the game was the 400th of her varsity career.
Durango plays at Evergreen on Friday at 5 p.m.
Demons baseball goes in three games last week
The Durango baseball team enters April 4-3 overall after a 2-1 stretch to finish March.
Aztec beat Durango on Thursday 8-6. The Demons were up 3-1 after two innings and the game was tied 4-4 after four innings.
The Tigers outscored the Demons 4-1 in the fifth to go up 8-5 and Durango could only get one run in the top of the sixth.
No individual stats were available for Durango from the Aztec game.
Durango bounced back on Friday to beat Valencia High School, from Los Lunas, New Mexico, 8-3.
The game was tied 3-3 after two innings before Durango scored three in the fourth and two in the sixth for an easy victory.
Junior Dylan Burns led the Demons, going 3-4 at the plate with two RBIs and a home run. Junior Landin Padilla went 2-3 and had an RBI.
Demons senior Jack Englund pitched six innings and had eight strikeouts while allowing one hit and three runs.
On Saturday, the Demons beat Bayfield 9-2. No individual stats for Durango or an inning-by-inning box score were available.
Junior Tavian Box and senior Micah Cornelia had hits for the Wolverines.
Durango plays at home against Montezuma-Cortez on Tuesday.
Demons boys lacrosse gets first win of season against Crested Butte
The Durango boys lacrosse team equaled its win total from last year in the span of 24 hours. The Demons won at Crested Butte 12-9 on Friday and 11-5 on Saturday.
After finishing last season 2-11 overall and 1-9 in the 4A Mountain League, the Demons are 2-2 overall and 2-1 in the 4A Mountain League under first-year head coach Val Skarbek.
“What really helped was we have been working really hard on basics like ground balls … and then working on our possession,” Skarbek said. “Coach Tom Mudrak has been really working with us and stressing possession … gaining and maintaining possession, and then working on making sure that we took more shots on goal. It's a simple numbers game: Take plenty of shots, get possession and the more shots you attempt, the more likely you are to score some goals.”
The Demons competed against a very talented faceoff player and won zero faceoffs in the first game against Crested Butte, according to Skarbek. However, Durango capitalized when Crested Butte couldn’t complete passes and the Demons scooped up the ground balls.
Skarbek said the team maintained the lead for most of the two games.
On Friday, senior JT Munger had three goals and three assists for Durango. Senior Owen Muraro had five goals for Durango and sophomore Logan Muraro had a goal and three assists. Senior goalie Alex Gnehm had 25 saves for the Demons.
Munger led the way again on Saturday with three goals and five assists. Owen Muraro had two goals and two assists and Gnehm finished with 26 saves.
The Demons play at home against Grand Junction on Friday at 4 p.m.
Durango girls tennis goes 1-1 at Delta, Fruita Monument
The Demons girls tennis team improved to 3-2 overall and 1-1 in the 5A/4A Southwestern League after a trip up to Delta on Friday and Fruita Monument on Saturday.
Durango defeated Delta 6-1 on Friday. Junior Jordan Kitchens won the No. 1 singles match against Chloe Share from Delta 6-0, 6-0. Demons sophomore Natalie Christensen won the No. 2 singles match over Delta’s Rebecca Gonzalez-Franco 6-1, 6-0. Senior Rose Hinds was involved in a competitive match in the No. 3 singles, beating Delta’s Perla Valdez in three sets, 6-4, 3-6 and 1-0 (10-4).
Delta had some success with its No. 1 doubles pairing of Jazlyn Naranjo and Lily Perez, beating Durango’s senior Molly Best and freshman Ella Claasen in three sets, 3-6, 6-2, 1-0 (11-9).
The No. 2 doubles match was also eventful, with Durango senior McKenzie Hayden and junior Madelyn Agre beating Delta’s Averie Verquer and Naomi Thomas in three sets, 6-1, 6-7 (9-11), 1-0 (10-6).
Durango won more convincingly in the No. 3 doubles match, with seniors McCartney Thibodeau and Lucy Flores beating Delta’s Bella Siennicki and Gabby Cardenas 6-4, 6-1.
In the No. 4 doubles match, Durango’s senior Mary Jane Ramos and sophomore Annabeth Hanson beat Delta’s Adi Collins and Second Wright 6-2, 6-0.
On Saturday, the Demons didn’t have the same amount of success with Fruita taking the win 5-2.
Four of the six matches lasted three sets. Hinds won one of those matches in the No. 3 singles, beating Fruita’s Taylor Oliver 4-6, 6-4 and 6-3. The No. 1 doubles pairing of Best and Claasen also won for Durango, beating Fruita’s Maddie Payne and Hadley Belnap 6-0 and 6-3.
The Demons compete in Grand Junction at Colorado Mesa University on Wednesday.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
