A home game would be perfect medicine for the Durango Demons after a 45-2 road loss, if only it wasn’t going to come against the defending state champions.
Durango High School will host the top-ranked team in Class 4A at 6 p.m. Friday night when the Pine Creek Eagles fly into town with their powerful running game and stout defense.
DHS is the only team in the state to face the No. 1 and No. 2 team this season after hosting Montrose earlier in the season. The Demons hung tough with the Indians in a 44-27 loss, and they hope to do the same against the Eagles.
“We feel we can play our game if we just focus on ourselves and not the other team,” DHS head coach David Vogt said Wednesday in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “It is a great opportunity to play the No. 1 team in the state, and of course guys are excited. If we stay focused and do our job, we will have a great chance to compete.”
DHS (3-4, 1-1 Pikes Peak League) lost its first road game in its new league last week in a 45-2 blowout at Palmer Ridge (4-3, 1-1 PPL) in Monument. The game was played in thick fog, and Vogt said the Demons got out of sync early with mistakes.
“We had some mental mistakes that were very crucial and not typical of our team,” he said. “We’ve focused on trying to fix those this week. It was not very Durango-like for us to play that way last week.”
Another blow to the Demons was the loss of junior wide receiver Lucas Baken, who suffered a broken wrist in the game. He and junior quarterback Terrence Trujillo displayed great chemistry, and Baken had brought dangerous athleticism to the DHS passing game that has averaged nearly 200 yards per game this season.
“Baken is a great kid. He really helped this team out a lot this season,” Vogt said. “He had an amazing year coming out after not playing and being a straight basketball kid for a long time. He really uplifted the whole team.”
Vogt said the team will need the next man up to replace Baken’s production, and it will help to have senior wide receiver Justin Marcum back in the lineup this week after he was forced to sit out a game for a suspension after being ejected late in a 28-23 win against Liberty two weeks ago.
“That is a huge help for us. He is a senior leader and brings a different dimension to our offense,” Vogt said.
It will be the Durango defense that will need to produce big plays and turnovers if the Demons are to hang in against Pine Creek (7-0, 2-0 PPL).
The Eagles have averaged nearly 40 points per game, while DHS has averaged just 18.3. Pine Creek rushes an average of 275 yards per game.
Pine Creek quarterback Tommy Lazzaro has a completion percentage of 54.3 percent, and he has seven touchdown passes to three interceptions this year for the Eagles.
Pine Creek senior running back Josh Odom leads the team with 1,095 rushing yards and 18 touchdowns, which is as many as the entire Durango team this year.
“We have just worked on the fundamentals of tackling and getting off blocks,” Vogt said. “If we do that, hopefully we can surprise the state and show everyone what our talent level is here in Durango when it comes to football.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
