Durango boys soccer tops Montrose to take control of the Southwestern League

MONTROSE — Durango went on the road to pick up a win over Montrose on Wednesday, and secured sole possession of first place in the Southwestern League.

The Demons won, 4-3.

“We always expect a battle when we come to Montrose,” Durango coach Aaron Champenoy said.  “They’ve had some good results this year and we knew it was going to take a good effort from us.”

Durango jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first half on goals by AJ Carlson, assisted by Braden Lyons, and an unassisted goal from Sawyer Fornella.

“We had a quick start and capitalized on two early set pieces,” Champenoy said. “It was great since we worked on them this week leading up to the game.”

Montrose responded with a goal by Bryan Delgado, assisted by Bo Duncan, and another by Sean Alex, assisted by Jorge Baez.

Durango added one more before the first half ended when Lyons scored his second goal again, this one assisted by Leland Heinickie.

“It was huge for us to get the third goal and take the lead into halftime,” Champenoy said. 

In the second half, Durango added to its lead when Heinickie scored.

With less then two minutes to go, Montrose’s Alex scored again to make it 4-3.

“We had some defensive adjustments and played much better in the second half and were able to punch in one more goal late which ended up being the game winner,” Champenoy said.

Said Montrose coach Cassie Snyder: “We played our hearts out the whole game and things just didn’t go our way. We had one of the best games we have played all year, even though we were facing a lot of adversity. I’m so proud of how much growth my team has made and this will only make us stronger for the rest of the season.”