Fall sports are officially back and all Durango fall sports are officially underway. All teams have at least a few intriguing storylines which will be fun to follow as the season progresses.
Demons boys soccer got off to a great start at the end of last week. On Friday, Durango opened the season with a 1-0 win at Legend, which went 12-4-2 last year and made it to the 5A quarterfinals.
Durango senior Eli Williams scored the winning goal off a corner kick with less than five minutes to go in the game. Senior Mavrick Rodriguez was credited with the assist. Durango boys soccer head coach Sean Ackerman picked up his first win as head coach. He said the team played a defensive style for most of the game and finally broke through late.
Then on Saturday, the Demons continued its road trip with a 0-0 tie at Rampart. Ackerman said the team had some chances for a winning goal but didn’t have the highest quality passing or chances.
“I'm extremely proud of them,” Ackerman said. “We basically had one week to come together and then we’ve just been pushing the work ethic piece all summer long. For us to come and get a couple of results against a team that reached the 5A quarterfinals and was fifth in the state last year, it's huge for us. So our confidence is high. I have a lot of confidence in the boys after a couple of good performances.”
Ackerman complimented the play of junior Derek Caudle, senior Jack Preston and senior Duncan Madrigal.
The Demons are back in action on the road at Farmington on Sept. 3 at 6 p.m.
Durango girls volleyball beats Delta 3-1 to open season
If the Durango volleyball team can have the balance it had at Delta on Saturday going forward, the Demons can make some noise.
Durango beat Delta 3-1. The Demons won the first set 25-18 and then Delta won the second set 25-20. Durango won the third set 25-18 and the fourth set 26-24.
It was a comeback in the fourth set for Durango. Down 22-16, senior Tyler Trujillo served and helped tie the game at 22 with two aces. Durango volleyball head coach Kelley Riffilato credited Trujillo with being poised and confident in those moments.
Senior outside hitter Avery Rike led the Demons with 13 kills. Freshman outside hitter Devyn Edwards had 10 kills and junior Hadyn Neiman had nine kills.
“She's dynamic,” Riffilato said about Edwards. “She’s played volleyball since she was born. Her sister plays up at Fort Lewis she just comes to play all the time … They were trying to go at Devin and Devin just stepped up and did a fantastic job. She's so composed for how young she is. If you didn't look at our roster, you would have no idea that she's a freshman. She is wise beyond her years. She did great. Avery Rike did fantastic. She really coming into her own. She had a great winter season. She's gotten red-hot and she does some great things for us.”
Riffilato was happy with how balanced the distribution of hitting attempts was. She noted the team had some early season jitters and made some bad hitting errors.
The Demons played a unique setup against Delta without a libero. Riffilato said she’s gotten creative to move some players to different spots during the match.
Demons softball splits series at Montrose 1-1
After a tough start to the season with an early blowout to Eagle Valley, Durango softball bounced back on Friday with a 17-11 win in the second game at Montrose.
The Demons should’ve also won the first game on Friday. Durango was up 8-1 after three innings but blew its lead and lost 18-12.
After the two games, Durango’s record was 2-4 overall and 1-1 in 5A/4A Southwestern League.
“It's unreal,” Durango softball head coach Sara Clair said. “We are scoring over 10 runs a game right now. We're putting lots of runs on the board, but we continuously, in every game, have one or two innings where the defense just falls apart. Our biggest struggles right now are defense and errors.”
Durango cross country finished 13th in boys and girls at Norris Penrose
The Durango boys and girls cross country teams got a taste for what the state championship meet could be like in a few months with the pre-state meet at Norris Penrose on Friday in Colorado Springs.
Both teams competed in the championship division, which Durango cross country head coach Michael Fadil said is a step up in competition compared to what Durango will usually see.
The boys team finished 13th out of 19 schools while the girls team finished 13th out of 16 schools.
Senior AJ Bonanno was the top Durango boy. He finished 36th with a 16:54.5 5-kilometer time. Freshman Caden Voss finished 52nd with a 17:10.7 to be the second fastest male Demon.
On the girls side, sophomore Lacy Ruggiero led the girls with a 36th-place finish with a 21:08.8. Senior Bryn Aggeler had a nice race and was second for the Demons girls with a 44th-place finish and a time of 21:22.3.
“Based on time, the boys ran really well,” Fadil said. “The three boys that had run at the state meet last year all ran 10-25 seconds faster than they did at the state meet. Everyone’s looking good. We’re doing some longer and harder training right now so I’m not surprised no one lit the world on fire. The girls times are really hard to compare because even though they ran at 6 p.m. and the boys ran at 6:40 p.m., the weather at six was significantly warmer. The sun was still pounding and it was hot.”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
