No. 5 Durango boys soccer beats Montrose in regular-season finale

MONTROSE – The fifth-ranked Durango boys soccer team paid a visit to Montrose on Friday and the Demons were victorious, 2-1, to leave with their 12^th victory of the 2021 season.

Sitting at fifth in the RPI, the Demons broke a 1-1 tie in the second half with a game-winner by Ryan Bell in the team’s regular-season finale. With the postseason fields scheduled to be released on Monday, Durango head coach Aaron Champenoy was pleased to finish the season with a win over Montrose that pushed the Demons’ win streak to four straight.

“Finished the regular season with a tough win on the road at Montrose,” Champenoy said. “It’s always a very difficult place for us to play for variety of reasons. After an eight-day layoff, it wasn’t our prettiest performance of the year, but we got it done on the road. Credit Montrose, they came out and worked hard to make it a battle and limit our quality chances.”

The Demons scored first on a goal by Teryk Webber, assisted by Sam Carozza. Christopher Gonzalez-Muniz, assisted by Christian Smith-Lucero, scored to put Montrose on the board and sent the game into halftime knotted at 1-1. At 33:46 of the second half, John Murray assisted Bell on his goal that broke the tie and sealed the victory.

“We scored an early goal and didn’t settle in the rest of the first half very well and had a tough time controlling the possession that we have done so well all season,” Champenoy said. “Second half, we were better and started to open their defense up but didn’t get a lot of clean looks at goal. I thought Teryk Webber played a very good game at midfield, getting the first goal and really effective on both sides of the ball. We were solid defensively in the second half with our back four and defensive mids doing the work.”

The Indians (7-8) are currently 30th in RPI standings.