The Durango High School boys lacrosse team rallied in the fourth quarter on Saturday while playing Montrose, but was unable to overtake the Red Hawks. Montrose held off Durango to win the 4A Mountain League game, 11-8.
“We were a little late with our urgency at the end,” said DHS head coach Luke Miller. “That cost us.”
While the coach would have preferred a win, he was happy with the improvement the Demons showed since their last game.
“This was a good improvement game,” Miller said. “We played a full game of lacrosse; in all phases of the game we competed. We just gave up a couple (goals) in transition.”
Goalie Alex Gnehm had another big day for Durango, making 24 saves in the contest.
“He had a good game,” Miller said. “He fights to keep us in games.”
Henry Huff got the scoring going for Durango with a man-up goal just over six minutes into the game.
Less than 30 seconds later, however, Montrose scored to tie the game, 1-1.
Gnehm made a point-blank save and also stole a pass after it was bobbled just in front of him. Jameson Connolly and Logan Gurule also put shots on goal for DHS, but the quarter ended with the teams even.
Montrose struck first in the second quarter, but Cruz Martinez answered for Durango. Martinez scored with a low shot through the Montrose goalie’s legs, making it 2-2.
The Red Hawks, however, scored twice in a 44-second span later in the quarter to take a 4-2 lead into halftime.
Montrose then won the third quarter, 4-2, to take an 8-4 lead into the fourth. Owen Muraro jumped and fired a shot over the shoulder of Montrose’s goalie, making the score 6-3. Gurule later scored his second goal of the game, running across the goal and bouncing a shot in to make it 7-4.
The Demons then rallied in the fourth. Muraro hit the post in the first minute, but DHS maintained possession. A few seconds later, Muraro found Huff open in front and Huff scored to cut Montrose’s lead to 8-5 with 11:58 remaining.
A couple minutes later DHS got a man-up after a Montrose push in the back. The Red Hawk goalie made a good save on a Connolly bounce shot. Shortly after, however, Wynn Daniels bounced a shot by him for DHS, scoring his first high school goal and cutting the lead to 8-6.
Montrose scored next, but Martinez found the back of the net a second time to make it two-goal game again, 9-7, with 5:06 remaining.
A Red Hawk penalty gave DHS a good opportunity with 3:26 left, but it was Montrose who scored with quick transition goal that put the game out of Durango’s reach.
Gnehm made three saves in about a 30-second span to keep Montrose from pulling away. Muraro then scored his second goal of the game with acrobatic shot in the final minute. The Red Hawks, however, scored with 11 seconds remaining for the final tally.
Jackson Nash had a strong day on face offs, winning nine of 15 for DHS. “We’ve improved immensely on face offs,” Miller said, but added the Demons need to covert more of those wins into goals.
Next, the Demons will head to Crested Butte for a rematch with the Titans. Crested Butte won the first match between the teams, 6-4, in Durango.
“We hope to build off this in the next week,” Miller said.
DHS is now 0-5 overall and 0-4 in the 4A Mountain West while Montrose improved to 1-4, 1-3. Crested Butte is 2-3, 2-2.
