Durango senior Katie McLean, on the receiving end of a well-placed corner kick from Bekah Keil, rushed the net amid the crowd in front of the goal.

She collected the ball and bodied it past the Fruita Monument keeper to give Durango a 2-0 lead in Friday afternoon's high school soccer match at Riverview Sports Complex.

The goal led to another for the Demons just four minutes later when Katerina Garcia hit a grass-scorching low ball just inside the near post, and Durango went on to wrap up a 3-0 Southwestern League victory over the Wildcats.

While that crucial second goal was cause for a brief team celebration, Katie McLean celebrated like it came in a World Cup final.

"Yes, this was my first goal of the year," an excited McLean said after Friday's victory, recalling her very first high school goal.

"And it came against the same team that I tore my ACL against as a freshman and a sophomore. I didn't play last year, so to get the goal against Fruita on this very same field is `85 amazing," she said.

"We've been working on our abs all week, and I used my abs to `85 knock it in (the goal)," said McLean, who came back from the two ACL surgeries (one on each knee) to play for the Demons again this year.

"All of us have grown up playing soccer together. We've known each other for a long time," she said, crediting her teammates and their ability to play together for their success this season.

"Once we started talking, we started to play together, and we started to play faster," the DHS senior said, citing coach Aaron Eldridge's halftime adjustments.

"We wanted them to settle down at halftime," Eldridge said after the Demons improved to 8-2-1 overall and a league-best 5-0-1.

"We didn't want everything though. We wanted possession `85 that's what we do," Eldridge said.

"We were playing too much individually in the first half. We had to start talking to each other."

And the Demons outshot the Wildcats in the first half, they dominated possession in the Fruita Monument end in the second half.

Twice the Demons hit the crossbar in the final 12 minutes, including one blast off a direct kick from senior Kristi Gemperline.

The Demons started their second-half offensive when Kiel nailed a shot just over the center of the crossbar.

Kiel, a junior, had opened the scoring for Durango when she flashed down the left side and beat the Fruita Monument defenders to a through ball midway through the opening half.

She ripped the ball into the net in the 21st minute for what would be the only goal of the first half.

Garcia nearly extended Durango's lead on three different occasions late in the first half.

One shot sailed up and over the bar; a second went wide left by about 2 inches; and the third drilled Fruita Monument keeper Rachael Smith, who made a self-preservation save.

Durango's Callie Morris, in goal for the Demons' shutout, had a handful of saves, including two off strong shots from Fruita Monument seniors Marcela Lucas and Sarah Hensley.

Fruita Monument, with the loss, fell to 1-9-1 overall, 1-4-1 in conference.

The Demons, once they moved to a two-goal lead, used extensive substitutions with another key SWL game today.

"We wanted to stay as fresh as possible," Eldridge said.

The Demons will host Grand Junction at 10 a.m. today at Riverview.

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