Rematch wasn’t the right word.
A day after the Durango High School girls lacrosse team took as large as a four-goal lead and came an overtime away from beating the Mountain League-leading Grand Junction Tigers, the Demons expected to get a rematch Saturday morning at DHS Stadium.
Instead, a different team showed up: The undisputed, undefeated Tigers of the Mountain League.
Grand Junction held the Demons scoreless for more than 40 minutes, all while dicing up their off-ball defense to hand DHS a 12-2 loss on Senior Day at DHS.
“What they did is what I expected (Friday),” DHS head coach Jenni Darlow said. “That’s the Junction team I expected. They didn’t make mistakes; we did. It’s that simple.”
The Tigers opened up a 9-0 lead by halftime with a speedy and sharp transition attack that couldn’t seem to miss a pass – or a shot.
The flow looked good enough to give some college teams a run for their money.
“Oh yeah,” Tigers head coach Alexis Rawlings said. “I was in shock. (Saturday) it just all came together.”
Halle Harrison tallied a hat trick in the first 15 minutes of play and finished with five goals to lead all scorers. Kassidy Roberts also completed a hat trick, and Kacie Jay added five assists to go with a score.
“Their transitions were beautiful,” DHS senior midfielder Haley Dallas said.
“If (a pass) was remotely catchable, they caught it,” Darlow said.
The Demons, meanwhile, didn’t.
They struggled early and often with completing passes despite controlling a significant portion of the time of possession. And when DHS shot, too many were low on the net, where Grand Junction goalkeeper Beth Jennings was at her best.
“I just watch the ball and keep my eyes on the ball at all times,” Jennings said.
She made 11 total saves.
McKenna Rigdon made six for DHS.
“They’ve got a very, very good team; I don’t think we played to our potential,” Darlow said. “It should’ve been 12-2. But I don’t know if we could’ve played good enough to win against (Saturday’s) team.”
The second half was much better for the Demons – or just not so stellar for the Tigers – as passing deteriorated all around.
Sara Martin and Dallas’ hustle in the midfield created some more opportunities for the Demons, who still got stuffed more often than not by Jennings.
“I thought she was a rock star,” Darlow said of Dallas. “She battled, battled and battled.”
The persistance finally paid off when DHS scored its first of the game on a sister-to-sister connect with 8 minutes, 55 seconds to play.
Hannah Quick hit Sophia Quick to make it 11-1. A minute and half later, Hannah Quick got a score of her own, assisted by Tymbree Hawkins, before the Tigers scored the last goal with 6:48 to play for the final score.
Still, the blowout loss felt better than Friday’s 11-9 overtime loss, the one that got away, Dallas said, especially against the more formidable Tigers’ squad that showed up Saturday.
“Honestly, this game was not as painful to lose as that last game because we deserved the score that we got. And it’s hard to say that on Senior Day,” said Dallas, daughter of Donna Dallas.
“We’ve beat teams playing poor lacrosse, but I’d rather lose playing beautiful lacrosse, trying our best against a wonderful team, than lose on a crapshoot.”
DHS (3-7, 2-5 Mountain League) will have a trio of opportunities to stack the odds in their favor with solid lacrosse next weekend. The Demons will play three games Saturday at Adams State in Alamosa, times to be announced.
The DHS boys game scheduled against Santa Fe Prep on Saturday was cancelled after the Blue Griffins decided Friday not to make the trip.
jsojourner@durangoherald.com
Durango Demons
Senior Day
Note: Eight seniors on the Durango High School girls lacrosse team celebrated Senior Day on Saturday at DHS Stadium.
Haley Dallas
Faith DeBolt
Samantha Jones
Sara Martin
Alyssa Montoya
Hannah Quick
McKenna Rigdon
Ruby Roll
Durango Herald
