After a tough game against Montrose on Friday, the Durango girls soccer team bounced back on Tuesday in a dominant 8-0 win over Telluride.

The Demons dominated possession and moved the ball with ease up and down the field. The whole bench got into the game in the second half and none of the three Durango goalies were ever challenged.

Durango improved to 2-2-1 overall with the win while Telluride fell to 1-3-1 overall with the loss.

“It was a great game after last week,” Durango head coach Melissa Halonen said. “It brought some morale up a little bit. I saw some really good combination play, I saw us fight through some physicality which was good.”

Sophomore midfielder Josie Phare had two goals and an assist. Junior midfielder Peyton Cioppa had two goals and an assist as well. Junior midfielder Bella Saren had a goal and three assists as well. Six different players scored for Durango.

The Demons were aggressive early on in the first half with numerous chances with multiple Durango players breaking through the Telluride backline. Unfortunately for Durango, the Demons couldn’t convert on the breakaways and multiple corners.

Finally, the Demons converted on a corner kick with 30:55 to go. A ball from Saren rolled into the six-yard box and Cioppa finished on the lower left corner to go up 1-0.

Offside calls were an issue for the Demons as through balls were played to attackers. But the attackers timed their runs poorly and were way offside. This killed numerous scoring chances in the middle of the half.

Halonen said the team hadn’t seen a backline as high as Telluride’s this year. She said the timing of the runs and passes could’ve been better. Halonen said the team could’ve moved the ball side-to-side instead of straight all the time.

Saren had a great through ball to freshman defender Ellis Campbell with about 18 minutes to go in the first half down the left side. Campbell had a shot on goal with a tough angle but couldn’t finish with her left foot.

The Demons continued to dominate possession and were consistently knocking on the door. Telluride never threatened in the first 25 minutes.

Junior midfielder Lauren McClellan put the Demons up 2-0 with 10:45 to go. She got the ball on the left side, dribbled past a defender and finished over the keeper’s right shoulder.

There was a scary sight for Demons fans when junior midfielder Emily Mcvaugh had a collision with a Telluride payer and had to be helped off the field with just over six minutes left in the first half

Then Phare got a through ball into space down the middle from Cioppa and finished to put Durango up 3-0 with 6:01 to play in the first half.

Telluride had its first real chance of the game with about five minutes to go in the first half off a steal deep in Demons’ territory. The Telluride striker missed wide.

Phare continued her aggressiveness, won a 50-50 ball and had a beautiful shot from just outside 18 yards which found the top of the net near the crossbar. Durango led 4-0 with two minutes to go in the first half.

“She’s a good player,” Halonen said about Phare. “She finishes a lot, she already has four goals this season. She’s versatile, she never really knows where she’s going to be put in at one time. She works really hard to get in front of the goal which helps us score goals.”

Less than a minute into the second half it looked like Phare had broken through and scored a hat trick. However, the refs made a questionable offsides call which took away the goal.

Then 20 seconds later the Demons scored off a pass towards the far post which was finished but that goal was taken away as well.

Senior goalkeeper Anabel Agre made a mistake by picking up a pass back to her which resulted in a free kick from just outside the six-yard box. Telluride passed it back and junior Emma Reggiannini skied it over the goal.

Saren was able to break through on the left side from a pass from Phare and finished one-on-one against the keeper to put the Demons up 5-0 with about 14 minutes to go.

Senior Reese Dahly scored with about 10 minutes to go inside the box right before colliding with the Telluride goalie. Saren had the assist and Durango led 6-0.

Halonen was happy with how the Demons adjusted to the Telluride defense and found a lot of open space.

Senior midfielder Addie Gross finished inside to put the Demons up 7-0 with six minutes to go off a pass from freshman Lila Scherer-Sickler. Cioppa scored with less than two minutes to go off a pass from freshman Annika Lundquist to finish the game up 8-0.

“Everybody got in which was really great and we had multiple different scorers which is good for us,” Halonen said.

Durango is back in action on Friday at home against Grand Junction at 6 p.m.

bkelly@durangoherald.com