Road win at Durango for Aspen girls lacrosse
Special to The Aspen Times
Aspen,CO, Colorado
DURANGO, Colo. – The Durango High School girls lacrosse team missed overtime by a couple of feet.
In the final 3 seconds of Saturday’s Mountain League matchup between the Demons and the Aspen Skiers, Samantha Jones got fouled twice inside the 8-meter line.
Two penalties; two shots at extra time.
The first , a push on the left side of the goal with 3 seconds left, gave Jones a free position attempt. Instead of a shot, though, she got swarmed by Skiers.
The second, a check to the head to the center-right of the goal with 2 seconds left, gave her a second one.
She got that shot off, but it bounced just wide of the goal.
There was no scoreboard confusion this time. Overtime slipped the Demons’ grasp for a second time in as many days, and Aspen won 8-7 at DHS Stadium.
“Durango in the second half, they hustled their butts off, and we just got lucky at the end,” Aspen’s Shannon Turbidy said.
Jones’ game-tying try would’ve put the cap on a 3-1 second half for the Demons after they trailed 7-4 at halftime.
Angela Grogan scored a wrap-around-the-net goal with 16:23 to go, and then Tymbree Hawkins played copycat to inch Durango within a single goal with 10:50 remaining.
Hannah Quick’s point-black blast off a long, cross-field pass from Durango teammate Sheila Prentice tied the score for the first time with 5:04 to go in the game.
Turbidy wasn’t having it.
She took a pass from Libby Dowley on a quick cut to the goal, and Trubidy found net behind Durango goalkeeper McKenna Rigdon for the fifth time Saturday.
Game over.
“My biggest asset is my speed, so that’s what I used,” Aspen’s junior midfielder said.
Rigdon made four saves Saturday; Aspen keeper Isabella Courtenay-Morris made five.
But this game was all about pace control.
Durango’s second-frame hustle turned the tide a little too late after the Skiers managed their way to a first-half lead with fundamental play.
“Our team played some very nicely composed lacrosse on offense and on defense,” Aspen head coach Lauren Riddick said.
Aspen spread its attack and controlled the tempo with short, snappy and on-target passes and efficient ground ball pickups, over which the Demons fumbled.
“Ground balls were like the ugliest thing ever for us,” Durango head coach Jenni Darlow said.
Then in the transition, the Skiers slowed Durango’s offense with double, triple or quadruple teams at midfield and kept the Demons from getting into much of a passing-forward rhythm.
It helped the Skiers jump to a
2-0 lead with 12:30 to go in the first half, before Durango’s Alyssa Montoya got going.
Montoya assisted on Durango’s first two goals, scored the third and assisted on the last one before the break, leading the Demons to their only lead of the day, 4-3, before the Skiers answered with four in a row.
Paige Johnson scored two goals, and Dowley added one to Trubidy’s five for Aspen (3-1 overall, 2-1 Mountain League). Durango is 0-2 overall, 0-2 in league).
The Skiers will return to Aspen to host Steamboat Springs on Monday and Grand Junction on Friday.
Managing a world-famous climbing publication remotely from Carbondale
Derek Franz is the editor-in-chief and lead content decision-maker for the famed and highly respected magazine, whose corporate offices are in Jeffersonville, Vermont.
