In the blink of an eye, the Durango Demons went from elation to heartache Friday night in Pueblo.
Durango quarterback Jordan Woolverton, who passed for two touchdowns and ran for two more, led the seventh-ranked Durango High School football team on a go-ahead drive with 1 minute, 4 seconds to play against mighty third-ranked Pueblo South in a game played at Thunderbowl Stadium on the campus of Colorado State University-Pueblo. The junior was faced with a tough fourth-and-3 at midfield and broke free for a 47-yard touchdown run. He then kicked an extra point that gave the visiting Demons a 34-28 lead against the host Colts.
But Pueblo South junior Luke Guarienti returned the ensuing kickoff roughly 71 yards all the way to the Durango 21-yard line to get the Colts in position for the game-winning score with 53 seconds to play. Only moments later, Pueblo South quarterback Logan Petit hit Jackson Dickerson on a 9-yard TD pass, and the extra point from Jackson Tondera gave the Colts a 35-34 lead with 14 seconds to play. The Demons’ last-ditch effort came up short, as Woolverton was sacked to end the game, and the Demons (5-3, 2-1 SCL) lost a game that will likely decide the championship of the Class 3A South Central League.
“You go from putting one in and going up by a touchdown and thinking you got one in the bag and having them put one in against us,” Woolverton said. “Your heart drops. It’s very tough. But I’ve never seen a team put as much as we put out there tonight. I’m super proud of how every single guy on our team played. They played their hearts out.”
DHS head coach David Vogt called Woolverton’s TD run to take the late lead a gutsy play.
“One of the best football plays I’ve ever seen in high school,” Vogt said. “It was just amazing. He bounced off two or three guys, stiff-armed a guy and they hit him and he still tip-toed on the sideline and got in.”
Durango had rallied back from a 20-6 second-quarter deficit behind big runs from Everett Howland and the arm and legs of Woolverton. He helped the Demons cut the Colts lead to 20-12 at halftime with a 41-yard TD pass to Gage Mestas, who went up in the air and took the ball away from Pueblo South defender Connor Huth and then ran in for the score. But a key 2-point conversion try, an attempted pass from Mestas to Woolverton out of a swinging-gate formation, was incomplete, and Durango trailed by eight points with 5:56 to go in the second quarter.
The Colts (7-1, 3-0 SCL) looked to add to the lead before halftime, but Ean Goodwin stepped in front of a Petit pass at the 4-yard line for an interception that sent the teams into the half.
Durango would score on the opening drive of the third quarter on a 56-yard TD run by Howland, and the Woolverton extra point was good to trim the Colts’ advantage to 20-19 with 10:20 to go in the third quarter.
The Demons would take their first lead of the game early in the fourth quarter, as Woolverton threw a 6-yard TD pass to Mestas. A 2-point conversion was good on a Woolverton run, and Durango led 27-20 with 10:05 to play.
Petit and the Colts answered right back on a 20-yard TD run, and Petit then hit Garrett Mauger on a 2-point conversion pass to give Pueblo South a 28-27 lead with four minutes to play.
The stage was then set for Woolverton’s go-ahead score before the Colts’ backbreaking TD in the final seconds.
“It’s hard to lose in that manner when you give everything you’ve got. That’s what our kids did,” Vogt said.
Pueblo South worked with a short field all day. DHS was without kicker Caleb McGrath, who doubles as a soccer player and had a big game of his own Friday night in Durango. Woolverton did the kicking duties along with his play at quarterback and free safety. The Colts’ initial drive of the game started on their own 42, and George Longoria would score on a 4-yard TD run that capped a seven-play drive. Durango blocked the extra point and trailed only 6-0.
The Demons would tie the game five minutes later on a 17-yard TD run by Woolverton, but his extra point was wide left. The first quarter would end 6-6 with Durango in possession on its own 33.
After a Durango punt and a 31-yard return by Dickerson to the Durango 49, Petit hit Mauger on a 35-yard TD on a swing pass with plenty of blocking set up in front of Mauger, and the Colts took a 13-7 lead.
A costly special teams mistake then would cost the Demons. Woolverton attempted to run out of a punt formation on fourth-and-18, but he was hit and fumbled. Dylan Atencio-Lujan of the Colts picked it up and ran roughly 36 yards for a TD to make it 20-6.
“You have to win all three phases, and we just didn’t capitalize on the special teams side of the ball,” Vogt said.
Likely to once again miss out on a league title, the Demons have now come up short in three games against ranked opponents, with a 25-18 loss to previously second-ranked Palisade, a 14-13 road loss to Class 4A No. 3 Montrose and now the defeat to the third-ranked Colts.
Durango will return to the Thunderbowl in Pueblo next week to face Pueblo County (2-6, 0-3 SCL) before the regular-season finale Nov. 8 at home against Pueblo East (3-5, 2-1 SCL).
“Our line played their hearts out against one of the best defensive lines in the state,” Woolverton said. “(Howland) ran his heart out. Everyone on the team played as hard as they could. I’m super proud.
“We are going to take this feeling that we should have won and apply it next week and let it motivate us to win out the rest of the season.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
