A second-half rally put the Demons one win from an outright Southwestern League title.
The Durango High School football team came back from a 10-0 halftime deficit to eke out a 17-10 victory over Fruita Monument on Friday at Stocker Stadium in Grand Junction.
Ty Taylor’s 35-yard field goal in the first quarter and Jake Lynch’s 12-yard quarterback keeper for a touchdown in the second gave the Wildcats (3-6, 1-3 SWL) a 10-0 halftime edge.
DHS (7-1, 3-0 SWL), ranked No. 7 in Class 4A this week by CHSAAnow.com had chances early thanks to Fruita Monument turnovers but couldn’t convert. Both teams had three first-half turnovers each.
But Durango got on the board with a little help from its defense in the third quarter. Caleb Lloyd picked up a Wildcats’ fumble and took it 99 yards for the score on a huge swing play for DHS, turning a potential 17-0 hole into just a 10-7 deficit in the third quarter.
Lawrence Mayberry gave Durango its first lead of the night on a 2-yard touchdown run with 10 minutes left in the fourth quarter, and the Demons capped the scoring on Blake Dunlap’s 25-yard field goal with 1:14 to play.
Dunlap’s field goal was set up by an interception of Lynch, and after DHS capped its scoring, Fruita Monument tried a reverse on the ensuing kickoff with disasterous results. The play resulted in a fumble, and Durango recovered before taking knees to run out the rest of the clock.
DHS won despite totaling just 107 yards of total offense and earning six first downs to 13 for Fruita Monument. The Demons took advantage of a 7-3 edge in turnovers, including three interceptions of Lynch.
“Just the travel hurt us, I think,” DHS head coach David Vogt said to the Grand Junction Sentinel. “We got off the bus, and we didn’t play very well. We picked it up in the second half and started playing fundamental football.”
The victory ensures the Demons of at least finishing in a three-way tie for first place in the SWL. A victory next week at Montrose would lock up an outright conference crown for DHS.
Montrose suffered its first loss of the season in a 36-33 setback at Grand Junction on Thursday.
A loss next week would leave DHS tied with at least Montrose and likely Grand Junction – who will play winless Grand Junction Central – atop the SWL, leaving the title in the hands of a series of tiebreakers, jumping to point differentials of each team’s wins over the others, with the lowest point differential being eliminated.
Then, the head-to-head winner of the two remaining teams would earn the title, according to the Sentinel.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
