It’s a road trip for the Durango High School football team for the third time in four weeks. That’s just fine for the Demons.
No. 3 Durango High School (3-0, 1-0 SCL) will jump back into Class 3A South Central League play at noon Saturday against No. 12 Pueblo East (2-2, 1-2 SCL) in what has been a competitive clash the previous two years. The kickoff time was moved up an hour in hopes DHS can get back on the road before a winter storm hits Saturday evening.
“This season is going super fast, but our guys are feeling great right now,” Durango head coach David Vogt said. “We already have a really good, natural feeling playing on the road and traveling. We feel comfortable doing it for our third road game already. We like the challenge of it.”
A year ago, Durango secured a 33-20 victory in the regular-season finale in Durango. In 2018, it was the Eagles that claimed a 24-7 win before going on to finish as state runner-up to Palmer Ridge with a 47-38 loss in the Class 3A state title game.
“They are a great team. It’s always a tough game with them,” said DHS senior quarterback Jordan Woolverton, who played through a shoulder injury in last week’s 17-8 win against Evergreen in the Demons’ first home game of the shortened six-week season.
Last week was Durango’s first close contest of the year. A Sam Carozza field goal before halftime gave DHS a 3-0 lead on Evergreen before an injured Woolverton and the DHS offense added to a strong defensive effort with a couple of second-half touchdowns to secure the big victory.
It’s been nothing but close games so far this year for the Pueblo East Eagles. No. 10 Cañon City (3-0, 3-0 SCL), which will visit DHS next week in the regular-season finale, beat the Eagles 21-18 in Week 2. In Week 1, East was able to beat Riverdale Ridge 27-17 in a non-league contest.
It was a 28-7 loss for the Eagles to No. 5 Pueblo South (2-0, 2-0 SCL) last week after a 26-12 win against Pueblo Central in Week 3.
“Last week, nobody scored until the third series in that game between South and East. East is a very good team,” Vogt said. “Our gameplan is to wear them down just like we did last week to Evergreen. Our conditioning with our kids will hold up to anybody in the state. It’s about being patient when we play these really good teams, waiting for our breaks and knowing we will break people down eventually.”
For DHS, that all starts with its powerful offensive line. But DHS will be without right tackle Rocco Estes this week, who will sit out a one-game suspension for a penalty he received last week when he stuck up for DHS running back Nate Messier, who was being punched after scoring a touchdown.
Woolverton was limited at practice again this week despite playing last week through his shoulder injury. So far this season, the University of Colorado prospect has gone 30-of-49 passing for 527 yards and five touchdowns to one interception. He also has rushed for 149 yards and three touchdowns on only 13 carries.
DHS has immense balance running the ball. Messier leads the charge with 215 yards and five touchdowns on 34 carries. He, too, was limited last week with a knee injury. Ben Finneseth, an all-state wide receiver and fellow Colorado prospect with Woolverton, has 145 rushing yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries to go with eight catches for 107 yards and two more scores.
Gage Mestas, who also has 78 yards and a rushing TD this year, has 14 receptions for 254 yards to lead the DHS receivers.
“We are practicing hard this week. We are going to take it very serious and be ready to go up to Pueblo and take another win,” Mestas said.
Defensively, linebacker Tyler Barnes has led DHS with 30 tackles, while Cole Matava and Kyler Reimers each have 21. Reimers and Ford Pitts each have two sacks for a Demons defense that has seven interceptions led by two each from safeties Chase Robertson and Woolverton.
The defense will look to stop East quarterback Jaxson Herring, a true dual-threat QB.
“He has some weapons on the outside with some tall receivers,” Vogt said of Herring and the Eagles’ offense. “But he wants to run the option, scramble and do that kind of stuff. We are focusing on shutting him down and making other people beat us this week.”
DHS will look to cut down on penalties, something that is easier on the road for DHS than at home. Last week, the Demons were penalized for 85 yards. Woolverton knows that will have to improve to bring home another win before next weekend’s regular-season finale.
“We have to clean up the mistakes. We had a lot of penalties,” he said after last week’s game. “We gotta take those back and clean it up. We are playing good football right now, and I am excited with where we are. If we clean up those penalties and keep playing the ball we are right now, we will be fine.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
Game info
Who:
No. 3 Durango at No. 12 Pueblo East
What:
CHSAA Class 3A South Central League football
When:
Noon Saturday
Where:
Dutch Clark Stadium, Pueblo
Live Stream:
www.durangoathletics.com/broadcasts
Listen Live:
KKDG 99.7 FM
Twitter:
@jlivi2
