Already named the player of the year in the 5A/4A Southwestern League for girls basketball and volleyball, Durango High School sophomore Mason Rowland could make it a hat trick.
After scoring a hat trick of three goals Thursday in the 3-0 win for the DHS girls soccer team against league rival Montrose, Rowland now has seven goals in four games this season.
Making it all the more impressive, the sophomore plays all over the field as a true box-to-box center midfielder rather than sitting up top in the formation as a striker with the only job of scoring.
“She covers so much space for us,” DHS head coach Melissa Halonen said. “We’ve talked about her as a (striker), but she just does so much defensive work everywhere on the field, and she’s still scoring goals.”
Rowland scored her first in Thursday’s match in the 11th minute with a blast from 35 yards out. She placed her laser shot into the upper left corner to give the Montrose goalkeeper no chance of making a save. Halonen was happy to see the goal, as she said many Demons have the ability to shoot from long range and need to take those chances.
“We always talk about getting a goal in the first five minutes. I know it wasn’t in the first five minutes, but getting a goal early like that let’s us settle in and just play,” Rowland said. “We are a very selfless team, and sometimes that can cost us, but we are working on just shooting when we’re open, and we did that a bit more today.”
DHS carried that 1-0 lead into the second half before Rowland scored again. DHS sophomore Riley Campbell, who hit the corner of the goal frame with her own long-range shot in the first half to barely miss a goal, worked hard to get in position for another score. Rowland was there to finish it off when the ball came back to her.
“Riley had worked so hard to get into position. She did all the work, and I just followed her and was there for the shot,” Rowland said.
Ten minutes later, it was Rowland there again to beat the Montrose goalkeeper. Clara Krull played in a perfect cross into the goal box, and Rowland volleyed it with the inside of her foot to direct the ball into the net.
“Clara had an amazing cross in. She had so many crosses in that game, and we just couldn’t get any runs,” Rowland said. “That time, we had so many girls make a run into the box, and when it came to me I was there, but anybody could have put that one in.“
Montrose had one good chance at a goal late in the game, as Josie Coulter made a long run onto a perfectly played through ball to get one-on-one with Durango junior goalkeeper Jocelyn Feir.
Feir didn’t flinch when Coulter looked to put a shot past her, and she was there to knock it down with her gloves and control the rebound to preserve the shutout.
“Everybody knows Jocelyn can make that save in her sleep. We all know she can do it, but when she makes the save in a game, it’s all that more exciting,” Rowland said.
The win gave the Demons (3-0-1, 2-0-1 SWL) sole possession of first place in the league. Second-place Montrose (2-2, 2-2 SWL) was looking to keep pace but fell further behind.
DHS will face Pagosa Springs in a non-league game on the road Tuesday. Grand Junction will then visit at 6 p.m. Thursday.
“We feel good. We worked on a lot of things this week that we saw in the game today, and we got everyone in the game, which is great for us and our morale,” Halonen said. “Our midfield really controlled the ball and played to feed it a lot more. We’ve been out on our turf a lot more this week trying to understand how fast it goes, and I think our girls did well with it today.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
