On senior night on Friday, it was all seniors who ripped the nets with their goals. On Saturday, it was a freshman who opened up the scoring for the Durango girls soccer team.
Freshman Lila Scherer-Sickler scored a beautiful goal in the first half to give the Demons some breathing room against Fruita Monument. With a 1-0 lead at half, Durango added another goal and won its regular season finale 2-0 at Durango High School.
The Demons improved to 9-2-3 overall and 5-1-2 in the 4A/5A Southwestern League with the win. Fruita fell to 5-8-1 overall and 4-3-1 in 4A/5A SWL play with the loss.
“We haven’t lost since the end of March which is huge for us,” Durango head coach Melissa Halonen said. “We are winning games when it counts to put us in a really good position for the postseason play.”
Senior forward Emery Miller had a goal and an assist for Durango. Scherer-Sickler had a goal and senior Reese Dahly had an assist.
The Demons had a few turnovers in their own half in the first five minutes by the back line but Fruita wasn’t able to capitalize. Miller put a ball into space for senior defender Adde Neiman to run onto from her right-back position. Neiman took a one-timer from about 30 yards out but it went over the bar.
Durango freshman defender Ellis Campbell kept the pressure on with a nice cross with her left foot to an open junior midfielder Bella Saren but Saren mishit the ball on a one-timer and it missed the goal.
Junior defender Lilly Fitzpatrick saved a goal for the Demons. In a crowded box, sophomore keeper Ryne Neiman bobbled the ball and lost track of where it was. A Fruita forward chipped it over Neiman’s head but Fitzpatrick cleared the ball off the goal line with a header with 30 minutes left in the first half.
“That was huge,” Halonen said about Fitzpatrick’s play. “She’s our rock back there. She’s always consistent and levelheaded. She doesn’t get emotional and she doesn’t let things get to her. That’s huge with all the highs and lows back there.”
Both the Demons and the Wildcats struggled to make plays deep into their opponent’s half in the middle of the first half with the midfield being the battleground. Adde Neiman sent in a great corner with 6:30 to go but no Demon could get to it.
Halonen said the Demons weren’t starting their offense high enough and couldn’t get forward because of it. Durango wasn’t patient enough to get its offensive shape bigger in the attack, according to Halonen.
Finally, space opened up for the Demons. Miller played a ball down the right side from the midfield to Scherer-Sickler. She ran onto the ball, fended off a Fruita defender and put the shot right under the crossbar in the center of the net with the Fruita keeper off her line with five minutes left in the first half.
“Lila is an attacking-minded player,” Halonen said. “She’s always going to be higher than we probably want her to be. We were able to put Emery into the middle of the field, with her vision and soccer IQ, she looked up and saw Lila was going and played her a great ball.”
Coming out of the second half up 1-0, Durango had its first chance four minutes in. Scherer-Sickler didn’t give up on a possession and ran onto a ball in the 18-yard box. She fired a shot right into the keeper’s chest. The rebound came to Miller with the keeper on her back. But Miller wasn’t able to finish as her finesse shot went wide.
The next big chance came with about 19 minutes to go. Dahly got her head on a great corner kick but the header hit the crossbar and went over the net.
Off a great challenge and a 50-50 ball win, Dahly played a beautiful ball down to Miller who fought through numerous Wildcat defenders and finished from the right side into the lower left corner. The Demons went up 2-0 with 15:25 to play.
The pace slowed down as Durango didn’t have to push it and subs were able to come in on the offensive end to end the game.
Durango awaits its state playoff seeding on Sunday. The Demons are currently ranked fourth in 4A in CHSAA’s selection and seeding index. If Durango is able to stay in the top four, the Demons will have home field through the quarterfinals.
“I would be surprised if there was any other team in the state that had a similar schedule where we were on the road for six games,” Halonen said. “A lot of these girls play multiple sports so that’s an all-year-long thing for them. So the resiliency and the ability to be focused and do that day in and day out is commendable. I don’t know if I could’ve done it as a kid.”
The Demons will host their first-round opponent on Wednesday.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
