It wasn’t that the Durango High School football team lost Saturday, but it was the way they lost that made it so painful.
Locked in a 14-14 game going into the fourth quarter of a quarterfinal game of the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 3A State Football Playoffs, No. 7 Durango had plenty of opportunities to take control. But devastating mistakes cost the Demons, and the playoff-experienced No. 2 Pueblo South Colts took advantage to claim a 21-14 win Saturday afternoon inside Dutch Clark Stadium in Pueblo.
“It hurts. Our kids put in the work and were a good team,” DHS head coach David Vogt said. “We made mistakes, and those mistakes cost us in the playoffs. They get a kickoff return for a touchdown and the turnovers. It comes down to five plays when you’re playing a good team, and each one of those plays is a momentum-shifter. Hats off to them, they executed and made more plays.”
It was a Logan Petit 3-yard touchdown run for Pueblo South that was the difference in the game. Petit, the Colts quarterback, had come up with a massive third-and-11 pass of 49 yards to Jace Bellah to the 11-yard line to set up the score. Bellah wrestled the ball away from Ean Goodwin to earn the catch.
“That was an amazing throw and a great catch,” Vogt said. “Our defensive back went up late, and both kind of had it. Their receiver ripped it from him at the last second. Both had a chance to get the ball, and it ended up a great play by them.”
A holding penalty hurt the Colts, but Petit had a big run to the Durango 5-yard line one play later and got even closer on a personal foul penalty on Durango. That set up the winning touchdown run. Petit was 11-of-15 passing for 143 yards, one TD and two interceptions. George Longoria finished with a game-high 110 rushing yards on 28 carries. Petit had 36 rushing yards of his own.
It was the second time this season the Colts (11-1) had sent the Demons (8-4) home with an agonizing defeat. On Oct. 25, it was a final-minute touchdown and extra point that gave the Colts a 35-34 victory to win the South Central League championship.
“I think we challenged our defense as a whole,” Pueblo South coach Ryan Goddard told the Pueblo Chieftain. ”(Durango) executed really well the first time we played, and I thought our kids really executed (Saturday).
“We wanted to control the line of scrimmage and control the ground game.”
The league rivals met again Saturday with a spot in the semifinals on the line. Durango hasn’t reached the state semifinals since 1997, and the drought would not end Saturday. Instead, Pueblo South, which won the 2017 Class 4A state championship, punched its way into a Class 3A semifinal game next week at No. 6 Frederick (11-1), which beat No. 3 Discovery Canyon 32-25 to earn a home semifinal game.
“It’s sadness. We couldn’t finish for our seniors who played their heart out all season long and put in the work with us,” DHS junior quarterback and safety Jordan Woolverton said. “To come so close and lose by a touchdown in the last minute again like we have a lot of times this season, it really stings to end our season.”
A Durango team that looked every bit like a title contender in the first half was a shell of itself offensively in the second half. The Demons were held to 79 total rushing yards. Woolverton led the team with 45 rushing yards, while senior Everett Howland finished with a season-low 32 yards on 13 carries.
Woolverton finished 18-of-24 passing for 166 yards, no touchdowns and one interception, only his third of the season. Gage Mestas was Durango’s top receiver with 95 yards on six receptions. Ben Finneseth finished with six grabs for 42 yards, and Howland had 20 receiving yards on five catches.
The third quarter was defined by turnovers. Durango had the ball first, but two big tackles for a loss, including a sack, by Tyler White of Pueblo South forced Durango to punt. On the ensuing Pueblo South possession, Petit would be intercepted by Mestas, who returned it to the Pueblo South 35-yard line. But three plays later, a pass off the hands of Mestas was intercepted by Luke Guarienti of Pueblo South to give the Colts the ball back.
But then it was Guarienti’s turn to give it right back to Durango. He fumbled, and Ean Goodwin of Durango came up with it on the Demons’ 47-yard line.
Durango would lead a solid drive into Pueblo South territory near the end of the third quarter, but a fourth-and-3 run by Howland came up a half yard short, and Pueblo South took the ball back on its own 20-yard line with 9 seconds to play in the third quarter.
Durango’s defense continued to play a stout game in the fourth quarter and came up with a big turnover on downs, as it stuffed a run by Petit inches shy of a first down to get the Demons’ offense the ball at midfield. But a Howland fumble recovered by Woolverton sent Durango back eight yards on first down, and Durango never recovered and would line up to punt.
The long snap sailed over the head of punter Caleb McGrath, who could only retreat and cover up the ball on his own 17-yard line to give the Colts immaculate field position.
Again, the Durango defense stood firm. Longoria had a pair of 8-yard runs to set up first-and-goal on the Durango 1-yard line, but he was stacked up and stripped short of the goal line on the next play, and Howland came up with the fumble recovery for the Demons.
Durango would drive as far as its own 40 but would be forced to punt. This time, it was a Woolverton quick kick that went 20 yards and out of bounds at the Pueblo South 40.
That set up Petit for his heroic final drive with 3:51 to play.
DHS would get the ball back with 1:04 to go on its own 32. But the Demons wasted too much time early. With only 7 seconds to play, Durango was at the Pueblo South 45-yard line. Woolverton completed a pass to Niko Mestas at the Colts’ 36-yard line as time expired, and the season was over.
“In late situations like that, they come out in a prevent defense and aren’t going to let you get over the top,” Woolverton said. “We tried to beat them underneath and make a play. The last play, they got some pressure. I tried to make a play with my legs a bit, got rid of the ball, but there wasn’t much we could do with it.”
The first half lived up to the game’s high expectations. Each team scored seven points off of takeaways to go into the locker room tied 14-14.
Durango would strike first. The Demons forced a Pueblo South punt on the opening drive of the game, and Woolverton would march the Durango offense down the field to the Pueblo South 25-yard line. But a bad handoff exchange between Woolverton and Howland led to a fumble, and the Colts recovered.
But, three plays later, Woolverton atoned for the turnover, as he stepped in front of a Petit pass for an interception. He returned it 60 yards for a Durango touchdown. The McGrath extra point was good, and Durango led 7-0 with 6:29 to go in the first quarter.
“I saw (Petit) drop back, and it was the same play they scored on us to win the game the first time we played them,” Woolverton said. “He pump faked at first, and I broke on the ball. (Howland) had a lead block when I caught the ball, and I got the score.”
Special teams against Pueblo South would haunt the Demons once more, though. Jackson Dickerson would take the kickoff 98 yards for a touchdown, and the Colts tied the game at 7-7 in a flash. It was a big kick return by Pueblo South in the regular season game that set up the Colts for the winning score against the Demons.
Durango would take its 14-7 lead on the next drive that went 70 yards in seven plays. Facing third-and-14, Woolverton hit Gage Mestas on a 50-yard completion to the Pueblo South 5-yard line. Howland then had runs of three and two yards to score with 1:52 to go in the first quarter.
DHS had two chances to make it a two-score lead in the second quarter but could not. An Andy Smith sack of Woolverton prevented a potential big play and forced a Demon punt. The Demons would then force another Pueblo South punt and got the ball back with more than 3 minutes to go before halftime and all three timeouts.
The Demons had the ball on their own 33, but it was ruled Woolverton fumbled in a key spot when he believed he was down. The ball went over to the Colts on the Durango 39-yard line with plenty of time to tie the game before half. The Colts picked up a pair of fourth-and-1 runs. After the second, a quarterback sneak from Petit, the Colts quarterback quickly got under center and rifled a 16-yard touchdown pass to Dickerson that tied the game 14-14 with 36 seconds to go in the quarter.
Durango will lose eight seniors from this year’s team, including Howland, Alex Finneseth and key linemen in Fynn Hyson and Carver Willis. But three starting offensive linemen will return along with a bulk of the starting defense. Of course, the Demons will also return Woolverton and his top two wide receivers. It will be sophomore Nate Messier, who ran the ball well when given time this year, who will have to fill the shoes of Howland next season.
“We are excited about the young guys who played this year,” Vogt said. “It was good for us to go two rounds deep in the playoffs, learn lessons and see what it takes to beat these good teams and go deeper. The message after the game was to learn from this and use it as fuel.”
With so many big-time players set to return in 2020, the Demons will expect to be right back in the quarterfinals with a chance to climb a step or two further next year.
To get there, though, Durango will have to navigate a new league – 3A Southern 1 – based in Colorado Springs against Discovery Canyon, Harrison, Mitchell, Sand Creek and Sierra.
“I think our goals next year get set a lot higher,” said Woolverton. “Having a great team coming back, I am excited to see what we can do next season with so many weapons. We have a lot of work to do this offseason, but we can pull together after this loss and get going to get back here next year.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
