Durango girls soccer has been on another level than its opponents recently, and Tuesday’s 5-0 win over Montezuma Cortez was another example of that.
Four goals in the first 25 minutes of the game set the tone and showed how potent the Demons’ offense can be when they get all their weapons involved. Durango didn’t have a perfect touch on the ball, but its defense never let the Panthers possess the ball for very long before stealing it back.
Senior goalkeeper Ryne Neiman was never challenged as her Durango defense built possessions out of the back to the offense, which found plenty of open space for through balls, attacking with the dribble and crosses. Five different Demons scored as they won their seventh consecutive game.
“We had outstanding shots today,” Durango head coach Zac Keeler said. “Lila’s (Scherer-Sickler) left-footed volley from Josie’s (Phare) crossbar hit, everything was looking good today from the girls.”
Durango improved 7-1 overall with the win. Junior Ellis Campbell led the Demons with a goal and two assists. Sophomore Lia Schowalter had a goal and an assist. Senior Josie Phare, junior Lila Scherer-Sickler and sophomore Megan Burns each scored for the Demons.
Montezuma-Cortez dropped to 6-2 overall after the loss.
The Demons controlled the first five minutes of the game, but they couldn’t find that last pass they needed to get a shot on goal. Either the touch wasn’t there on the receiving end, or the pass was a foot too long on the slippery and fast.
Scherer-Sickler put that all in the rearview mirror with the game’s first goal with 32:54 left in the first half. A bouncing cross came into the middle of the 18-yard box and Scherer-Sickler used her great touch to hit the bouncing ball off the lower part of the left post and into the goal.
Although the Demons didn’t have all the perfect passes, they won the ball back so quickly every time that it didn’t matter. Durango’s press scored its second goal, with Phare stealing a goal kick and scoring from 25 yards out with a shot into the top of the goal. Durango led 2-0 with 28:22 left.
Durango’s offense got sharper and sharper as the first half went on. The Demons moved the ball from the back beautifully, combining to find open space with well-timed runs. After a great pass to switch the field, Campbell got the ball on the right side. She hit a great cross on the ground for an easy finish for Schowalter in front of the goal for the 3-0 lead with 25:27 left.
“We were working a lot on one-two combination plays and two touches on the ball,” Campbell said. “Whenever we pick our heads up and see the runs that everybody’s making that we’ve worked hard to create, that’s really working well to create space and opportunities in the box.”
The Demons struck again with a little over 18 minutes left in the first half. Durango hit a solid shot on goal, and the rebound from the save came right out to Campbell, who finished an easy look from about 18 yards out for the 4-0 lead.
Scoring and composure hasn’t come naturally to Campbell since she plays more of a defensive midfielder role at the club level. However, she is getting more comfortable with her finishing as the season goes on.
Durango continued to move the ball well and found some great runs on the outside, but couldn’t score again in the first half.
At the start of the second half, the Demons didn’t seem to have their foot on the gas in the same way as the first half with their four-goal cushion. Durango was happy to control possession, and it didn’t seem to have the same touch on its long balls and through balls going the other way. Players were sprinting on the sideline like it was the 100-meter final in the Olympics, but almost all the through balls were too long to start the second half.
However, the fifth goal was finally on the board with 25 minutes left. Durango went with some direct passes on the sideline instead of through balls, and Campbell then played a ball right to Burns’ feet, wide open in the middle of the 18-yard box. Burns finished in the lower right corner to get the Durango fans cheering again.
“Today was just trying to make sure that we were playing together as a team,” Keeler said. “In the Central game, we tried to play individually and we wanted to get our focus on playing as a team. We made that happen today.”
The Demons play at home against Montrose on Friday at 5 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
