The Durango High School boys lacrosse team lost 11 seniors from last year’s roster, and the Demons are trying to fill in the gaps.
The missing pieces were evident for the Demons in their home opener Thursday, as they struggled to win faceoffs and maintain possession en route to a 12-8 loss to Telluride in cold, windy conditions at DHS.
“We were 4-of-17 on the faceoffs, so there’s the story right there,” DHS head coach John Robinette said. “We couldn’t win a faceoff. We lost 11 seniors from last year and Easton Verduzco, who was one of the best faceoff guys in the state, and haven’t found that guy to replace him quite yet. It’s hard to score when you don’t have possession of the ball, but even when we did, we had way too many unforced turnovers, too many dropped passes and too many penalties.”
The Miners’ win was their first ever against Durango’s varsity team.
The Demons (1-1, 0-1 5A/4A Mountain League) struck first with a goal from Ryan Smith about three minutes into the first quarter. But Durango’s lead didn’t last long, as the Miners (2-2, 1-1 ML) got a goal from Charlie Miller only 16 seconds after Smith’s goal.
Telluride took a 2-1 lead about two minutes later on a goal from Finn Bailis.
Leading 2-1 after the first quarter, the Miners pushed their advantage to 5-1 in the second quarter with a goal from Connor Sheehan, then two more goals from Bailis.
“I’m super proud of the guys for responding to a subpar performance against Montrose (on Tuesday). They played great today, it was the best I’ve seen them play so far this season,” Telluride head coach Marc Silbergeld said. “I told them before the game everyone was going to have to contribute and everyone did.”
Durango cut its deficit in half in the final few minutes before halftime. Smith notched his second goal, then Cullen Robinette scored to send the game to halftime with the Miners in front 5-3.
The Miners took control in the second half and built their lead to 9-3 midway through the third quarter with goals from Bailis, Sam Borup, Miller and Sheehan.
“We dug ourselves too big of a hole in the third quarter,” coach Robinette said. “It was only a two-goal game in the first half, and I wasn’t too upset because we didn’t play very good. I was hoping we could step it up in the third quarter, but we started a man down, they kept winning faceoffs, and we kept turning it over and couldn’t pick up the ball. That was kind of the trend of this game.”
Durango responded with goals from Smith and Cullen Robinette to get the deficit to 9-5 before Telluride closed the quarter with a goal to get the lead back to five goals at 10-5 to start the fourth.
In the fourth, the Miners got two quick goals from Christian Betz and Sheehan to extend the lead to 12-5.
With about four minutes remaining, Cullen Robinette found the net for Durango, then 35 seconds later, Rodgers scored to get the deficit to 12-7.
Rodgers added one more goal on an assist from Smith with a little less than two minutes remaining to give the final of 12-8.
Bailis finished with five goals for the Miners, Sheehan ended with three, Miller had two, and Betz and Borup had one goal each.
Cullen Robinette had three goals and an assist, Smith finished with three goals and two assists, and Rodgers had two goals and an assist. Liam Farkas had one assist for the Demons.
Durango won’t have time to sulk after the loss and will be back on the field Saturday to face Glenwood Springs (1-0) at DHS.
“I do like the quick turnaround,” coach Robinette said. “We’re much better than we showed today, and I want us to get right back after it.”
kschneider@durangoherald.com
