The poor weather and a cross-check to the back couldn’t stop Durango boys lacrosse senior Owen Muraro against Grand Junction on Saturday. At the same time, the Tigers’ offense couldn’t be stopped in the fourth and Grand Junction pulled away to beat Durango 16-8.
Muraro showed his entire scoring arsenal at attack on Saturday morning against a Grand Junction defense that faced him less than 24 hours earlier. He finished with six goals from a variety of angles and a variety of release points to lead Durango.
“It was a really tough loss and what got us is we had a man-up two-minute penalty at the end there and just couldn't capitalize on it,” Durango head coach Valeria Skarbek said. “What really got us was we could have played better. We were playing really tight up until we started to fall apart at the end there. We weren’t mentally or physically falling apart; we were just missing our man.”
The Demons fell to 2-4 overall and 2-3 in the 4A Mountain League. Senior midfielder JT Munger and junior attack Henry Huff each had goals for Durango. Senior goalie Alex Gnehm finished with 24 saves.
Grand Junction improved to 7-1 overall and 5-0 in the 4A Mountain League.
The Demons fell behind in the first quarter and couldn’t find their offense early. A Grand Junction goal with about four seconds left in the first quarter gave the Tigers a 4-0 lead. Gnehm didn’t look like he saw it and the ball trickled in.
Durango got on the board about two minutes into the second quarter. Muraro had a nice spin and finish with his left hand from the right side to cut the deficit to 4-1.
“We just didn't have as much intensity at the beginning,” Skarbek said. “Then Alex Gnehm, our goalie, really helped pump the team up and then we started to make a comeback there and things were looking really good for a while.”
Like yesterday’s game, the Tigers had a quick response. Grand Junction scored twice in the next minute for a 6-1 lead. The Tigers moved the ball well and found the open man for easy finishes around the crease.
A big problem for Durango was faceoffs. The Tigers dominated at the faceoff center, winning almost every draw in the first half with the faceoff man directing the ball to his midfielders on the wings. This led to multiple transition opportunities.
The Demons really found something in the second quarter. Passes were connecting that weren’t in the first. Muraro found space around the net and finished very well. He had three goals in the second quarter.
Skarbek said Durango ran some new plays that helped free Muraro up.
On defense, Grand Junction wasn’t getting the transition opportunities it had in the first and its offense became stagnant against Durango’s locked in defense. Grand Junction led 7-4 at halftime.
Durango had a great opportunity a man up to cut the lead to two early in the third. But the Demons didn’t move the ball and didn’t have the highest-quality shots. Grand Junction capitalized with two goals in about a minute to lead 9-4 with eight minutes left in the third.
The Demons got on the board in the middle of the third but it cost them. Munger was behind goal and had a great pass to Muraro, who finished on the crease. Muraro was pushed in the back as he shot and was down for a few minutes. He was helped off the field as Durango trailed 10-5 with 5:17 left.
Munger capitalized after Durango got the ball back after the penalty on Muraro. Munger ripped a shot from outside that kissed the post and went in the net to cut the deficit to 10-6.
Durango kept the pressure on Grand Junction to end the third. Muraro got back in the game and scored to cut the Tiger lead to three. Grand Junction was a little sloppy with its passing and turned the ball over. But the Tigers scored with four seconds left to increase its lead to 11-7 heading into the fourth.
Muraro continued his fantastic play to start the fourth, finishing a beautiful wraparound shot around the crease to cut the lead to 11-8.
Once again, the Tigers had the response. Grand Junction looked like it did early in the game, passing the ball well to the open man, getting out in transition and finishing around the crease.
The Tigers finished the game on a 5-0 run.
“Toward the end there, things felt like a little more frenetic with that intensity at the end of the game,” Skarbek said. “We just need to go back to the drawing board, back to the basics and do the things that I know they can do.”
Durango plays at Glenwood Springs on Thursday at 4 p.m.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
