Imagine if someone came to see Durango football play Grand Junction on Friday and had no idea what their records were. That person would think Durango was the undefeated team and Grand Junction already had two losses. They’d be wrong.
After starting the season 0-2, Durango has gotten better every week and had its statement win so far this season on Friday night at home on homecoming. Grand Junction came to town 4-0 and ranked seventh in class 4A. Durango dominated the Tigers on offense, defense and special teams as the Demons cruised to a 38-7 win.
Durango got in the backfield constantly so that Grand Junction’s 6-foot-4 inch 240-pound quarterback Will Applegate had no time to pass and nowhere to run. Durango senior quarterback Cully Feeney threw some beautiful deep balls and used his legs to be a threat on every play.
The Demons improved to 3-2 overall with the win while Grand Junction fell to 4-1 with the loss.
“They just keep exceeding our expectations week in and week out,” Durango interim head coach Ryan Woolverton said. “Every week, we’ve got better. They work harder every week. We preach that we make the practices so hard that the games are easy. They’re completely bought in on what we’re doing as a program and as a coaching staff. Both sides of the ball, they had great performances tonight.”
Feeney finished with 165 yards passing, two passing touchdowns and an interception. He also ran for 68 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
Durango junior wide receiver Seb Tripp finished with 113 receiving yards and a touchdown. Sophomore wide receiver Mason Miller had 50 yards receiving and a touchdown. Senior running back Ryan Dugan had 60 yards rushing for the Demons.
Junior kicker Dylan Burns was 1/1 for 48 yards with his lone field goal for the Demons.
Applegate rushed for the lone touchdown for Grand Junction. He also threw an interception.
On only the second play of the game, Feeney found Tripp about 30 yards downfield near the sideline. Tripp bobbled it, held on and took it the remaining 40 yards to the house for a 72-yard touchdown and a 7-0 Durango lead with 11:20 left in the first.
After a quick three and out for Grand Junction, the Demons got the ball near midfield. Feeney had a receiver open on third down but threw it a little high. It went through the receiver’s hands and ended up being an interception.
The Tigers ran the ball down to the Demons’ 21-yard line on a fourth-and-1. Applegate pushed forward for the first down. After that, Applegate rushed for about 18 yards for a first and goal opportunity from the 2-yard line. Applegate rushed it home for the score from about 2 yards out for a 7-7 tie with 3:39 to go in the first.
Once again, Feeney found success with the deep ball. He hit Miller on a go-route for a 50-yard score to make it 14-7 with 2:58 left.
“It’s something we worked on all week,” Woolverton said about the deep shots. “Grand Junction are very comfortable in the box with their scheme so they bring up their corners, they press, they play man coverage and they’ve got some great athletes back there. We were just fortunate to win a couple of shots early and dictate the pace of the game after that.”
Around midfield to start the second quarter, Applegate tried a rare pass to the end zone. He overthrew his receiver and junior cornerback Malakai Baier picked it off and did a great job of keeping his feet in bounds for the interception.
After a Feeney run, he waited, moved in the pocket and fired deep again to Tripp who wrestled it away from the defender for a 35-yard catch. This led to fourth down and a 44-yard field goal for Burns which he made with ease to put Durango up 17-7 with 9:22 left in the second.
Later in the second quarter, Grand Junction had to punt. The Tigers didn’t do a good job with coverage and the punt got blocked. Junior defensive end Nathan Beal recovered the ball and somehow stayed in bounds to take it 30 yards for a touchdown. Durango led 24-7 with 3:11 left in the first half and took that lead into halftime.
After halftime, Burns punted and hit a high beauty toward the 5-yard line. The Tigers’ punt returner couldn’t handle the catch and fumbled it away to Durango. Two plays later, Feeney ran it in for a 4-yard score to put Durango up 31-7 with 4:43 left in the third.
“Coach Hunter Holmes, he’s just our special teams guy,” Woolverton said. “He’s an ex-college guy, he was a graduate assistant at Texas Tech. He puts in a ton of time and we’ve really made special teams a priority. In close games, you’re going to win close games with those guys. Hats off to Coach Holmes and what he’s doing with those kids because it’s showing.”
As the game wore on, the Demons were sucking the soul out of Grand Junction. Durango ran it down the Tigers’ throats to chew clock. Dugan had a 30-yard run before Feeney kept an option play, broke a tackle and took it 30 yards for the score to make it 38-7 with nine minutes left in the game.
Durango hits the road next Friday to play at Rampart to begin league play.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
