GLENWOOD SPRINGS — At the time, it was a game-saving play.

Megan Cleland watched Palisade’s only first-half shot on goal bounce off the fingertips of goalkeeper Kelsie Hert and roll slowly toward an open net.

The Glenwood Springs junior defender charged the ball, outpacing a Bulldogs pursuer in the process, and knocked the ball away with a slide. Had the Lindsay Yeates-struck ball gone in, it might have changed the complexion of a girls soccer game Glenwood led 1-0.

Instead, Cleland prevented the Bulldogs from building any momentum and, behind two second-half goals, the Demons rolled to 3-0 win on Thursday.

“Pretty much as soon as the ball hit off the tip of her fingers I thought I better get back there just in case,” Cleland said of the play, which went down with six minutes to go in the half and stood as Palisade’s only true scoring threat of the afternoon.

Six minutes earlier, Allie Rippy gave Glenwood a 1-0 lead, converting a Leah Mansfield cross into a point-blank score. Mansfield’s pass skipped off a Palisade defender right to Rippy, who had half an open net to fire into.

That was one of several teamwork-heavy plays that propelled the Demons (1-2 overall, 1-1 in Class 4A Western Slope League) to their first victory of 2008.

“We needed that,” said Glenwood coach Bryan Stoltzfus, whose team was making its first appearance of the year at Stubler Memorial Field. “Our passing was key. The first two games we played, there was a lot of kick and runs when we should be getting three or four passes. Our give-and-goes were working (today).”

The Demons’ passing game continued to flourish in the second half. A couple of forward headers led to an easy goal for Kendall Strautman 4:30 in as, deep in Palisade’s zone, Bryttnie Evans directed the ball forward to Chelsea Vallario, who knocked it ahead to Strautman for a one-on-one strike.

Roughly four minutes later, Vallario lofted a well-placed cross to Abbe Vincent from the right corner. A wide-open Vincent, positioned in the center of the 18-yard box, knocked the ball down with her body and lasered in an easy goal.

Palisade keeper Amelia Davis kept plenty busy, stopping 12 of the 15 shots on goal she faced. Not bad, considering the ball resided almost exclusively on her side of the field.

“I was pretty pleased with our defense, but they pressured our goalie a little more than I liked,” said Bulldogs coach Luann Ehlers, whose team dropped to 2-1-2 both overall and in the 4A WSL. “We just need to work on getting some offensive opportunities.”