Gavin Mestas turned the game around in the blink of an eye Friday.
The sophomore was backed up inside his own 5-yard line when the Durango High School football team lined up to punt in a 7-7 game in the first quarter. Instead of punting, he ran off the right edge of his offensive line for a 41-yard gain. The Demons turned it into a 94-yard touchdown drive to take a 14-7 lead, and they never looked back on the way to a 53-14 victory against regional rival Aztec High School of New Mexico.
“Just a huge statement game; will give us confidence later on in this season,” senior quarterback Terrence Trujillo said.
Trujillo, son of Geno and Nicole Trujillo, said Mestas’ fake punt run set the tempo for the rest of the game.
“That was kind of a moral crusher for us in a lot of ways,” Aztec head coach Matt Steinfeldt said. “We see a 95-yard drive out of them as a result of that in a drive that ate a lot of time.”
Senior running back Lawrence Mayberry set the tone early with 129 total yards and two touchdowns in the first half. He finished the game with 108 rushing yards to go with the two total touchdowns.
“My O-line was working, whole offense was working; we had a rhythm, and I think they were nervous, and that helped us ... set the tone,” said Mayberry, son of George and Tonya Mayberry.
Trujillo marched the team forward like a general. He passed for 63 yards and two touchdowns in the first half, including a 25-yard strike to senior wide receiver Lucas Baken when the team faced a third-and-long situation. Trujillo also rushed for a score in the first half to go with 41 rushing yards. He finished the game 13-of-17 passing for 190 yards and three touchdowns through the air and 69 rushing yards for two more scores.
Senior defensive back James Brennan put an exclamation point on the first half with two interceptions in the final 2 minutes of the second quarter. He returned the first nearly 40 yards for a touchdown to give the Demons a 31-7 first-half advantage.
“It felt great. Minute I got it, I saw all the players going down the field blocking, and I wouldn’t be able to do it without some key blocks,” said Brennan, son of Charlie and Christy Brennan.
Mannasseh Brockus, a sophomore linebacker, made his presence felt in a big way, recording a sack of Aztec quarterback Cody Smith before recovering a fumble later in the second quarter. Braden Evans also recovered a fumbled snap by Aztec in the second quarter.
Brockus had one of three Durango sacks in the first half and five in the game.
“The defense is communicating so well. The thing at Durango has always been the defense,” DHS head coach David Vogt said. “The defense has to be the staple for us, and they stepped up with a lot of big hits. Those big hits turned momentum, and we rode that train.”
Smith started the game strong with a big 44-yard pass to Jake Taylor in the first quarter. That play eventually set up an 8-yard touchdown pass from Smith to Taylor to give Aztec an early 7-0 lead.
It was all Demons from there. Durango made it 37-7 with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Trujillo to junior Jake Bourdon, and a 19-yard run by Trujillo made it 43-14 just 30 seconds after Aztec scored on a 21-yard pass from Smith to Taylor.
Durango’s starters checked out late in the third quarter, giving junior Peyton Woolverton a crack at quarterback. He made the most of it, rushing for a 56-yard touchdown on his first possession to give the Demons a 50-14 lead.
Diego Arias took his turn the next drive. After he rumbled 35 yards to the Aztec 5, kicker Nick Jernigan connected on a 20-yard field goal to make it 53-14. It was his second field goal of the game, as the Demons added his powerful leg to the team with him leaving the soccer team this season.
Aztec struggled with the center-quarterback exchange with shotgun snaps much of the night. Both the center and quarterback are sophomores, and Steinfeldt said the botched snaps helped derail the team.
“It was huge. Unfortunately, we’re a young football team. Something as simple as a snap that we work on every day, but when you’re young it can be a challenging thing,” he said. “That kid has 1,000 great snaps every week, but sometimes the Friday night lights can be a lot of pressure for young guys. It really broke our back.”
The Demons will stay at home for a second of four home games this season. It will come against Farmington’s Piedra Vista High School. The Panthers recorded one of the biggest wins in school history Friday night with a 34-16 victory against Goddard High of Roswell, New Mexico, a perennial state title contender. The Panthers will enter ranked in the top three in New Mexico Class 5A.
“We’re coming for ’em,” Trujillo said.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
