The Durango High football team lost a day of preparation for its season opener against Delta when the game was moved from Friday to Thursday night because of a shortage of referees in the area.
“It’s kind of different. Pushing it one day sooner kind of messes with your regular schedule,” Durango coach David Vogt said of the schedule change.
With the shortened preparation time for the game, the Demons scrapped their walk-through practice Monday and moved into full practices for the offense and defense.
Class 3A Durango and Class 2A Delta met in last season’s opener and saw the Demons earn a 21-20 victory in Delta against the preseason No. 4 Panthers. A year later, Delta is once again the fourth-ranked team in its classification.
When the two squads met a year ago, the Demons had trouble keeping Delta’s running game in check. The Panthers ran for 259 yards, 209 of which came from Damon Jensen, who was the state’s second-leading rusher in 2016 with 1,946 yards.
But this season the Panthers will look a bit different. Jensen graduated, as did every other offensive player who recorded a statistic in last year’s game, according to MaxPreps.
Vogt said the Delta players will be different, but not much else, as much of the linemen returned.
“Knowing them, they just want to pound you and try to run the ball on you,” Vogt said. “They’ve got all their big hosses back from last year. I’m sure they’ll be able to plug in some guys. They’re not going to be small.”
Delta boasted one of the best offensive lines in the state last season, which led to Jensen’s accolades and the team averaging 258.5 rushing yards per game.
“The big thing with Delta is they have a pretty heavy-set O-line, so our D-linemen have really been putting in a lot of work,” said DHS senior Manasseh Brockus. “We’re getting ready, making sure we’re ready for their big guys and making sure we’re fast. That’s one of the big things, being fast off the ball. Controlling the line of scrimmage is a big part to letting everyone else flow behind them.”
Vogt said part of the game plan to try to negate Delta’s dominant offensive line is to attack the blockers from all angles, using a variety of blitzes from linebackers and defensive backs, and stunts from the defensive line to get the Panthers off-balance.
Where Delta lost nearly every skill player it had last year, Durango returned most of its skill guys, including senior Gavin Mestas, who accounted for all 21 of the Demons’ points in last year’s game against Delta.
In that game, Mestas recorded a receiving touchdown, returned an interception for a score, and returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown. Mestas also made three extra-point attempts.
Offensively, Vogt said one of the biggest keys for the Demons will be clean blocking – especially on the outside – to open up lanes for weapons such as Mestas.
“Blocking outside on the perimeter is going to be huge for us this year,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of guys that could go at any time, and if we can get a couple blocks on the outside then it’ll really open things up for us.”
Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at Durango High School’s stadium.
kschneider@durangoherald.com
If you go
WHO: Delta at Durango
WHAT: High school football
WHEN: 7 p.m. Thursday
WHERE: Durango High School
LISTEN LIVE: KKDG 99.7 FM
TWITTER: @karltschneider
