The Durango High School girls soccer team scored its second commanding win of the week on Friday, shutting out the visiting Grand Junction Tigers 9-0.
“We had a great game on Tuesday and our goal was to be better today,” said DHS head coach Melissa Halonen, referring to a 10-0 win against Alamosa. “That’s what we’re working for, and we have buy-in for it.”
And did they play better?
“Yeah, I think so,” Halonen said. “They’re a better team and we still scored nine goals.”
Three different Demons scored a pair of goals on Friday: Emery Miller, Bella Saran and Riley Campbell. Sarah Somrak, Sophie Ragsdale and Carter Neiman also scored once for DHS.
The Demons started putting pressure on the Tigers right away, first with a Somrak corner kick getting headed over the goal a minute in. After another corner and a Mason Rowland throw-in headed just over the goal, Miller got DHS on the scoreboard just under eight minutes in.
Two minutes later, Miller scored her second goal of the game, kicking the ball out of midair after it bounced around on a corner kick.
DHS then scored four more goals in the final nine minutes of the half. Somrak scored with a long shot with 9:06 remaining in the first.
Bella Saran scored three minutes later.
DHS was awarded a free kick deep in Junction territory and Miller, instead of firing a shot over the wall, flipped the ball backward to a teammate. DHS maintained possession and Saran blasted a shot in goal.
Campbell scored with a long shot less than a minute later.
Then, on the final play of the half, Durango added one more. Somrak placed a corner kick right in front of the goal and Saran was able to bump it in the net with her body, giving DHS a 6-0 halftime lead.
The Demons continued shooting in the second half and added to their lead 8:40 into the half. Sophie Ragsdale booted a shot on goal through some traffic. Grand Junction’s goalie was in position to make the save, but Ragsdale’s shot snuck by her and into the goal.
DHS was given a penalty kick less than two minutes later and Campbell capitalized, kicking a hard, low shot into the bottom right corner of the goal.
Durango’s last goal came on a free kick from about the 30-yard line. Neiman took the kick and booted it on target. Grand Junction’s goalie dove to stop the shot, but Neiman placed it perfectly just inside the post for a score.
Ryne Neiman, who took over in goal after Riley Dastrop played between the pipes in the first half, saw a little action. The Tigers pushed one shot wide in the second half and then Rowland headed away a corner kick in the box. On Junction’s next corner, however, Ryne Neiman made a play on the ball to keep the Tigers off of the scoreboard.
The coach said the team doesn’t have a set starting lineup at many positions and that competitiveness within the team is making them better.
“I feel like we’re playing the way we were when we started the playoffs last year,” Halonen said. “To be playing like that for our first league game, we’re feeling pretty confident.”
DHS improved to 2-1-0 overall and 1-0-0 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League with the win. Grand Junction slid to 0-3-1, 0-1-0.
The only bad thing that happened for DHS was defender Adde Neiman had to helped off of the field and did not return.
The Demons will be on the road next week for a pair of league games. DHS will play Grand Junction Central (4-1-0, 0-1-0) on Friday and Montrose (5-0-0, 0-0-0) on Saturday.
“I happy with our retention; we’re not having to start over from last year,” Halonen said. “Our style and competitive spirit, it’s just there.”
