A day of film and a couple of post-practice tossed snowballs.
Both the attention to detail and the looseness of the Durango High School football team were on full display after an October snowshower forced things indoors Thursday.
But don’t let the brief bit of unexpected winter revelry fool you. The Demons appear focused on the task at hand, a homecoming tilt Friday night against winless Grand Junction Central.
There’s plenty to be excited about around DHS, beyond even the typical homecoming festivities. The Demons are making a somewhat rare appearance in the CHSAAnow.com Class 4A poll, checking in at No. 10 after a dramatic 34-33 overtime victory over Grand Junction last week.
The Demons (5-1, 1-0 Southwestern League) currently sit fourth in playoff points in 4A, the highest they’ve been since 2009 in that category, and they’ve already overcome one of the biggest hurdles on the road to an SWL title, with the other – on paper, at least – coming in a road game at the end of the month against No. 1 Montrose.
And, finally, a win Friday would ensure just the third six-win season for DHS in a decade. The Demons won six games in 2004 under Kyle Davis, and they started 8-0 before finishing 8-3 under Greg Wyatt in 2009.
Head coach David Vogt, however, said DHS has developed an insular mentality, focusing more on the people inside the locker room rather than the excited chatter outside it.
“It’s just sticking to the same game plan that we’ve had all year,” Vogt said. “Not paying attention to the outside media and just worrying about what’s going on in the locker room.”
The players seemed to buy in fully to that mentality.
“Just remember why we’re playing and keeping that in our head. Can’t get distracted. Just got to stay focused so we can keep up what we’re doing,” quarterback and defensive back Jeremy Szura said.
Durango’s depth played a key role in the win over the Tigers. David Logan stepped in at running back for Tyler Worley, lost for the season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, and he ran for 211 yards and four scores, while Terrence Trujillo threw for a touchdown in relief of Szura, who remains day-to-day with a shoulder injury.
With football being a sport with a fair amount of injuries, depth has been critical all over the field for the Demons, and the system has provided the proper framework for the next man in line to fit in nicely.
“I feel like we have pretty good depth, and we have a big senior team, so that helps,” said senior Shane Bisogno, son of Arlene and Joe Bisogno. “But then we have some key juniors and sophomores, also, that help us out.
The Warriors have fallen on hard times lately. They’ve lost all six games, with the closest final coming in last week’s 47-14 loss to Fruita Monument. Central has allowed 40-plus points in every game this season. But, as always, the Demons will be on the lookout for big plays, even against a team that may not be quite as capable of creating them as past opponents.
After all, the Demons didn’t get here by overlooking the task at hand.
“Everything they do is fundamentally sound. So, they can pop big plays on us if we’re not careful,” Vogt said.
rowens@durangoherald.com
