The 30th-ranked Cañon City Tigers will compete on the road in the CHSAA 4A Girls Soccer State Championship Tournament on Wednesday night. The Tigers will face Durango, a team they faced to open the season March 11.
Cañon City will hope to upset the Demons and continue their run at a state championship.
Despite the opening loss, the Tigers bounced back and finished with an 8-5-2 record.
"We looked at it like there were some things we could correct in that match," Tigers head coach Pat Callahan said about bouncing back from the teams opening loss. "It was a good hard test for us coming out of the gates this season and like I said I think after the game, they realized there were some things we could do better and correct some things that happened in that game."
On top of that, Cañon City was crowned Colorado Springs Metro South League for the second straight year, finishing league play with a 5-1 record. Woodland Park also finished league play at 5-1, but the Tigers defeated them 3-1 on April 21 to clinch the league title.
"We're excited about that," Callahan said about the team defending their league title. It was certainly a goal that we had at the beginning of the season and so we're happy about that for sure."
The Tigers have been able to find the back of the net this season, and sophomore midfielder Korenn Gerl leads the team with 10 total goals. Sophomores Emily Burkdoll, and Aly Richardson, and junior Aaliyah Guidry each have scored six times for the Tigers.
"She's really done a nice job for us," Callahan said. "The scoring is pretty spread out. If you look at it, there are several girls right below her I with six or goals and it's not just a couple it's quite a few so it's nice to see it spread out like that as a coach."
Along with the six goals, Richardson leads the team with 11 assists on the season.
"She controls the middle and really does a nice job of setting things up offensively for us as well as defensively, too," Callahan said. "She has just done a super job."
While the Tigers are a relatively young team this season, seniors Payten John and Mady Ley have provided great leadership for the team.
"They've done a nice job as far as leading the team," Callahan said. "I can't speak enough about them they've just been solid in that area for us."
Callahan also mentioned that seeing Durango already this season could help the Tigers pull off a first-round upset.
"I think since we've played them that it won't be a new team with new surprises to us," Callahan said. "We know who their strongest players. We just need to correct dead ball situations, anything like that, corner kicks, direct kicks and throw-ins. We need to be able to defend those better and if we do that, I think it'll be a much closer game for sure."
The game kicks off at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Demon Stadium.
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