Durango shuts out Montrose to conclude regular season
The Durango High School boys soccer team wrapped up an undefeated regular season on Friday by shutting shut out 4A Southwestern League foe Montrose 3-0. With the win, DHS improved to 15-0 and 8-0 in the SWL to claim the conference crown for the first time since the 2018-19 season when the Demons went 7-0-1.
“It feels great; we definitely put in the work over the summer,” said DHS senior Cedar Newman. “Our team is coming into its potential and it’s really fun to see.”
“And its fun to be a part of,” said senior Nik Korte. Korte said wining the SWL, “just feels good. We usually dominate the league, but just have one or two games (we don’t win).”
The Demons are also being led by first-year head coach Danny Suits, who took over when Aaron Champenoy accepted a coaching job at Montana State University Billings.
“He came to a couple club practices to get a feel for the team,” said senior goalie Fred Reither. “His big goal was to minimize impact and make it a smooth transition.”
“I feel Danny helps us recognize our mistakes and he helps us figure out how we can do it better,” Korte said.
The team also has lots of depth, led by the eight seniors who were recognized before Friday’s game: Newman, Korte, Reiter, Gates Linney, Sam Caudle, Micah Stahl, Pol Cavaller and Nash Vareta.
Thirteen different Demons have scored goals this season, and 10 of those players have scored four or more. Korte leads the team, and league, with 20 goals. Newman leads in assists with 12 while also scoring 12 goals. Davis Cameron has eight goals, Teryk Webber has seven and Sam Persing six.
Defensively, Linney had made a team-high 244 steals before Friday’s game, followed by Neman (203) and Lucas Foster (196).
While Durango ranks No. 1 in CHSAA’s Class4A ratings percentage index, the Red Hawks came into Friday’s finale ranked just outside of the playoff bubble at No. 36 needing a win to keep their season alive.
Reiter made a big stop in goal early, diving to his right to block a shot.
The Demons had a lot of shots in the first half, but they missed wide and high, got saved by the goalie or blocked by a defender.
“I feel we started a little slow, but we found our rhythm,” Korte said. “We were way in our heads.”
The first half ended scoreless, but the Demons came out strong in the second half.
“There was a lot of emotion and excitement around senior night, but we settled into it,” Suits said.
“Halftime gave us a chance to reset and get our heads focused,” Newman said.
Stahl headed a shot on goal just two minues into the half. About three minutes later, Newman assisted Korte, who blasted a shot with his left foot across the goal and into the side netting to give DHS a 1-0 lead.
“It felt really good to finally put one in goal,” Korte said.
“I could see when got that one goal, the rest fell into place,” Reiter said.
The Demons stayed on the attack and putting pressure on Montrose’s goalie. With 14 minutes left, the MHS’ goalie made a diving save, but Cameron was there for he rebound and popped it out to Persing who buried a goal to put DHS up 2-0. Durango scored its third goal after Korte blasted a free kick off the cross bar. Persing touched the rebound and Korte flew and booted a hard shot in goal.
“I picked it and smashed it and caught the keeper off guard,” Korte said.
“Nik has come up huge (in the last three games) with two hat tricks and two goals today,” Newman said.
The 32-team state playoff bracket will be released on Monday. The higher seeds will host the first three rounds, so the Demons should host a first-round game on Wednesday.
The 4A semifinals will be held Nov. 9 at the University of Colorado in Greeley. The state finals will take place Nov. 12 Switchbacks Weidner Field in Colorado Springs.
