Durango needed halftime to regroup from an early 1-0 deficit. Before it came, the game looked drastically different.
No. 3 The Classical Academy scored two goals in a 38-second span in the final 2 minutes, 30 seconds of the first half to stretch a 1-0 lead into a 3-0 advantage before halftime against No. 7 Durango at EchoPark Stadium in Parker.
That lead swelled to 4-0 only 3 minutes into the second half and 5-0 with 14 minutes still to play, as a dream season for the Demons (17-2) came to an end one game shy of the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 4A Boys Soccer State Championship.
The 5-0 win gave The Classical Academy its fifth title-game appearance in the last six years across the 3A and 4A classifications, but the Titans (17-2) have lost all four of their previous trips.
“I haven’t seen a team like that,” DHS head coach Dalon Parker said. “They have 12 seniors who have been in the finals since they were freshmen. They are really good.
“They spread us out and did the one thing that you have to do in order to break us down, and we didn’t adapt at all to it. The beautiful thing about soccer is you don’t have timeouts, and you can only try to adjust as you send new guys in.”
Durango goalkeeper Trey Furnas was outstanding with double-digit saves, including many of his finest saves of a season in which he recorded 13 shutouts. But the speed of the Titans was too much for a usually stout defensive back line and midfield to deal with, as the Titans ran circles around DHS much of the match.
“We haven’t face a team like that all year,” Furnas said. “It’s firepower you can’t match with all the speed. We have Camden Garland on our back line, and he’s a really fast guy. But going against three of those kids, we couldn’t stop it.”
After avoiding a few early scares, the Demons conceded a goal in the 27th minute to Jonny Stephens, as he cleaned up a rebound directly in front of Furnas. The Demons’ defenders and Furnas wanted offsides on the play, but no official would make such a call on that play.
Stephens struck again for the first of two daggers to the Demons with 2:30 to go in the first half. He got his head on a long throw-in by Jeremy Baldes and placed it over the left shoulder of Furnas.
In the blink of an eye, Jaden Borja ran through the Durango defense and scored again to give the Titans a commanding 3-0 halftime lead.
“That’s what we’ve done all season long,” TCA coach Blake Galvin said. “Prior to this game, we had put in 109 goals with five guys with more than 10. That’s unheard of. The boys did a great job playing their game.”
Titus Grant scored a pair of second-half goals in the second half, and the celebration was on for The Classical Academy, making its third trip to the Class 4A finals.
Going into Wednesday night’s game, the Demons had conceded only five goals all season. Two were own-goals, one was on a penalty kick and two others were legitimate. All five were well-earned by the Titans.
Durango fell short of reaching its second state championship game in program history and first since 2007. The Demons have never won the state title game.
“Who doesn’t want to be that team? We’re going to remember this loss and keep working with what we’ve got,” said DHS junior Elijah Fenton. “We’re not far off from them and being there, but this was their year.”
The Demons will lose a huge class of 12 seniors on next year’s roster but also will return a large class of talented juniors and sophomores, giving DHS a bright future once again.
“The best gift the seniors could ever leave the program is showing the juniors and sophomores what is needed to get to this level,” Parker said. “Not it’s a question of how do we get back here and how do we win once we do.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
