Senior day is always a special occasion for high school athletes, but the five seniors on the Durango High School girls soccer team had an extra special senior day Thursday against Grand Junction Central.
Durango (11-4, 7-1 5A/4A Southwestern League) scored twice in the game’s first 20 minutes, and senior Peyton Floyd put the finishing touches on a 3-1 senior day win against the Warriors (6-9, 2-6 5A/4A SWL). More important, the regular-season finale victory clinched Durango High School’s first 5A/4A Southwestern League title since 2012 and capped off a memorable victory for seniors Lane Arnwine, Livi Curmano, Floyd, Mikayla Neidlinger and Chloe Taylor.
A year ago, the Demons lost a goal-differential tiebreaker in head-to-head games against Fruita Monument, giving the Wildcats a league title. This year, Durango owned a one-goal tiebreaker differential against the Wildcats to secure the championship ahead of the Class 5A team. DHS could win the title outright if Fruita falls to Grand Junction on the road Friday night.
The top-10 Demons will likely host a playoff game, and their careers at DHS are far from over.
“The big difference in this team than some of the others we’ve had here is that this group plays as a team,” Durango head coach Dalon Parker said. “One of the X-factors for us over the years has been the girls’ willingness to come together as a team instead of start drama and go against each other. We’ve had no parent drama and no player drama. When those two things come together, it gives the players a chance to shine and come together, and you win titles.”
Durango applied pressure early, and it didn’t take long to figure out that it was the Demons’ day. Autumn Stevens’ free kick from 50 yards out took a fortunate bounce and skipped over the Warriors’ goalkeeper Nikki Madaris to give Durango an early lead. The Demons took a 2-0 lead in the 24th minute after Lydia Larson’s rocket hit the bottom of the crossbar and went across the goal line.
Durango carried the two-goal advantage into halftime and wasted no time in adding to the lead after the intermission.
Not even one minute in to the second half, Floyd got the opportunity every soccer player wishes to have on senior day.
“Coach gave us a pep-talk at halftime and we just executed right away,” Floyd said. “It was a total team thing. This season has been different like that. We all had a meeting at the beginning of the season. We all agreed to work as hard as we could, and I’ve never been around a group that’s worked this hard.”
Grand Junction Central’s Rylea Rottman headed in a corner kick midway through the second half to cut the deficit to 3-1.
However, freshman goalkeeper Emily Badgley was up to the test for the remainder of the day. She made six saves highlighted by a second-half stop in which she dove to her right to stop a Warriors free kick.
As time ticked away, Durango desperately tried to get the ball to its seniors for one last goal, but it wasn’t to be. Fortunately for them, they’ll have at least one more high school game left. The Demons have won 10 of their last 11 and haven’t allowed more than a goal in a game since March 28.
“I think we’ve put ourselves in a really good position to be successful,” Floyd said.
“We just want to make it as far as we can. The good thing about us is that we all play for each other and not for ourselves. I guess we’ll see where that takes us.”
Durango will wait for CHSAA to announce Class 4A seedings and its first-round opponent later this week.
This story has been updated to reflect Durango High School’s last league championship in 2012.
jfries@durangoherald.com
