After 17 days off, the rust proved to be costly for the Durango High School boys lacrosse team.
The Demons came out strong in Friday’s matchup at Fruita Monument, but the layoff caught up to them, as Durango lost 14-12.
Kyle Robinette padded his Colorado High School Activities Association Class 4A lead in scoring to 35 with six goals to lead Durango. T.J. Rifkin added three, Cullen Robinette had two and Tommy Rodgers had one.
“We took a week off thinking it’ll either give some guys some much-needed rest or some rust,” Durango High School boys lacrosse head coach John Robinette said. “We definitely got some rest in, but I think the rust hurt us. We got off to a nice start and just didn’t play our best game after that.”
The Demons (5-2, 2-2 SWL) led 3-0 in the opening quarter, but Fruita came back to score eight of the next 10 goals and led 8-5 at halftime.
Durango fought back to even the score 9-9 midway through the third quarter. However, some missed defensive assignments and a few bad bounces that didn’t go their way proved costly down the stretch.
The Demons will try to get back on track at 11 a.m. Saturday at Grand Junction.
Baseball
BaseballDurango took an early lead but couldn’t close the deal Friday against Grand Junction Central.
The Demons (3-8, 0-1 5A/4A Southwestern League) jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the first two innings and couldn’t hold on, as the Warriors scored the next five runs to win 5-2.
Tyler Ruetschle took the loss for Durango. The senior threw six innings, allowed five earned runs on nine hits, walked two and struck out eight batters in the loss. Ruetschle also led the offense with two hits and a run batted in.
“Tyler had a really quality day out there,” Durango head coach Eric Baker said. “He’s been dealing, and we played a really good hitting team. He pitched good enough to win most games.”
The Demons got one run in the first inning and another in the second. Grand Junction Central tied the game with two runs in the third and took the lead with another in the fourth.
The Warriors (9-2, 1-0 SWL) added two more insurance runs in the sixth inning, as Durango struggled to get anything else going offensively.
Landen Sill had the other RBI for the Demons. Max Hyson, Mark Lamoreaux, Gavin Mestas and Dakota Padoven had the other hits for Durango. Lamoreaux had a triple, and Hyson’s hit was a double.
Caleb Dwyer was the winning pitcher for the Warriors. He pitched six innings and allowed six hits. He struck out five and walked three. Dakota Dunham pitched the seventh to pick up a save. Koby Steves damaged the Demons at the plate with a two-run single. Dylan Brown, Hunter Kelchner and Ryan Kirby had RBIs.
Durango will get another crack at Grand Junction Central at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
Girls Soccer
Girls SoccerSalida scored an early goal Friday against Bayfield, and that was enough to make the difference.
The Wolverines (2-4) gave up another in the second half and couldn’t get one through the Salida (3-2) goalkeeper, as BHS lost the game 2-0.
“They outplayed us and passed the ball around us,” Bayfield head coach Jen Zelinski said. “We made some changes in the second half, and they really started working. We came close a few times in the last 10 minutes but it didn’t fall our way. We’re super young, so we’re trying to change things up and find something that works.”
Bayfield will try again at 1 p.m. Saturday against Buena Vista.
The Ignacio High School girls soccer team dropped Friday’s match against Crested Butte 2-0. The game was played at Alamosa High School.
Crested Butte freshman Sydney Stoneberg scored in the 14th minute and 48th minute to put away the Bobcats (0-5). Ignacio only managed to fire off one shot on goal.
Bobcats goalkeeper Lanie Webb stopped 14 shots in the loss. Ignacio will try for a win at 12:30 p.m. against Center in Alamosa.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
