The Durango Demons revenge tour will roll into Pueblo’s Dutch Clark Stadium at 1 p.m. Saturday.
One week after the Durango High School football team avenged a regular-season loss to Palisade with a 23-14 home win last week in the first round of the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 3A State Football Playoffs, the No. 7 Demons will look to redeem their only other loss this season to a Class 3A opponent. It was No. 2 Pueblo South that beat the Demons 35-34 in the final minute Oct. 25 to claim the South Central League Championship.
Now, the Pueblo South Colts (10-1) will host the Durango Demons (8-3) once more Saturday.
“We’re on the revenge tour,” DHS senior Everett Howland said. “We’re excited to get back to Pueblo South and show them we can finish.”
A missed extra point, a botched 2-point conversion and a last-minute special teams mistake cost the Demons the league title in the previous matchup played at the ThunderBowl Stadium on the campus of CSU-Pueblo.
After Durango junior quarterback Jordan Woolverton gave Durango a 34-28 lead with a 47-yard touchdown run on fourth-and-3 with 1 minute, 4 seconds to play, the Demons allowed Luke Guarienti to return the ensuing kickoff 64 yards to the Durango 21-yard line. One run and a defensive pass interference later, and the Colts had first-and-goal at the Demon 9-yard line. That’s when Colts quarterback Logan Petit hit Jackson Dickerson on a game-winning touchdown pass, as Dickerson plowed his way into the end zone for the game-tying score that was followed by a Jackson Tondera extra point to win the game.
“It was a great high school football game,” Pueblo South head coach Ryan Goddard said Wednesday in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “Obviously, it was two good teams going at it. Both played hard and executed at a high level. Both teams were trying to impose their will throughout. There were special players on display in a great venue, and it was fun to be part of.
“Our kids enjoyed that moment. Even the Durango kids on the way out talked about what a great event and night it was, no matter the outcome.”
This time, only the outcome will matter, as the winner will advance to the state semifinals. That’s a stage the Durango Demons haven’t reached since 1997 under head coach Steve Thyfault. Five coaches and 22 years later, the Demons will try to return to the final four with players who weren’t even born the last time it happened.
“We want it bad,” Howland said. “We’ve been training for this all summer. A Durango football team hasn’t made it to the third round in a long, long time.”
Saturday’s game promises to be a physical matchup between two schools that pride themselves on hitting and playing hard. The Demons were a battered bunch of bodies after the previous meeting this season, but Durango will walk into Dutch Clark Stadium a healthy squad even after another hard-hitting showdown last weekend with Palisade.
Skill play will be at a premium behind the big lines. Woolverton has now thrown for 1,775 yards, 23 touchdowns and only two interceptions this year and has maintained outstanding accuracy at 73.3%. He’s also rushed for 960 yards and 15 touchdowns. Woolverton has a pair of go-to receivers in Ben Finneseth and Gage Mestas, who have combined for nearly 1,300 yards and 16 touchdowns.
Howland had two more big touchdowns last week and is up to 1,411 rushing yards and 13 scores on the ground to go with another 320 yards and three receiving scores on 21 receptions.
“I’m not really sure you can stop those two,” Goddard said. “They are pretty dynamic. With (Woolverton), he’s a fantastic passer, as well. They are really good players. Hopefully, we can slow them down a bit, but last time we didn’t.”
The Colts ride the running of George Longoria, who has 1,642 yards and 21 touchdowns with an average of six yards per carry this season. He has gone over 100 yards in all but one game. That was against Pueblo Central the final week of the regular season, when he had 85 yards on only 16 carries. Against Durango, he rushed for 106 yards on 26 carries. He rushed for only one score.
“You just can’t have him go for 50- or 60-yard runs,” DHS head coach David Vogt said. “We’ve really focused this week on wrapping up with our tackling and making sure we make our one-on-one tackles. Our defense is predicated on a bend-but-don’t-break thing. You might get a couple of yards on us here or there. If we minimize the long plays and don’t give up cheap touchdowns, we will be happy.”
Petit has passed for 1,670 yards to go with 18 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. He also completed a high rate of passes at 60.4%. His go-to man is Dickerson, who has caught 13 touchdowns to go with 931 yards on 56 receptions.
“His size, speed and the numbers he has put up this year, he’s the guy we need to stop,” Vogt said. “We have some different situations where we will double him, but we feel like we have a corner who can cover him. We won’t be afraid to blitz and run our game.”
Vogt said Durango also doesn’t want Petit to escape the pocket and use his legs, as he has rushed for 444 yards and 12 scores this season.
Defensively, Durango has 20 quarterback sacks, led by six from Howland and four from Kyler Reimers. The Demons have also forced nine interceptions, led by three from Ean Goodwin, as well as six fumble recoveries. The Colts have 11 interceptions, led by seven from sophomore Jace Bellah, and two fumble recoveries.
Both teams have talented lines, elite running backs and dual-threat, savvy quarterbacks. Once again, this matchup will come down to which team makes the fewest mistakes. A week after the Demons committed 17 penalties, they want to clean that up. But, with kicker Caleb McGrath with the team after he missed the previous game against the Colts, the Demons believe they are an improved special teams unit this time around.
“After we played them that night, we knew it was a possibility we’d see Durango again in the playoffs,” Goddard said. “Obviously, we wanted to be on the opposite side of the bracket from Durango because of the league implications. You want to see your league be successful. But we knew it was a possibility; we just hoped it would come later for both teams.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
If you go
Who:
No. 7 Durango (8-3) at No. 2 Pueblo South (10-1)
What:
CHSAA Class 3A State Football Playoffs, quarterfinals
When:
1 p.m. Saturday
Where:
Dutch Clark Stadium, 1001 West Abriendo Ave., Pueblo
Listen Live:
KKDG 99.7 FM
Twitter:
@jlivi2
Read online:
After Saturday’s full game story, go to www.durangoherald.com.
