IGNACIO – A dominant rushing attack paired with a brisk tempo powered the Aspen High School football team past Ignacio 39-12 on Friday night.
The Skiers barely threw the ball because they didn’t need to.
“It really wears teams down,” Aspen running back Ryan Fitzgerald said. “We don’t like to give them a chance to catch their breath.”
Fitzgerald picked up 151 rushing yards and three touchdowns in the game, with 120 yards and two touchdowns in the first half.
The Bobcats managed to sustain several drives early behind the arm and legs of quarterback Adison Jones, but sacks and penalties stalled them before they reached the red zone.
Jones went down with an apparent ankle sprain late in the second quarter, forcing Ignacio to go with Austin McCaw for the entire second half.
“Coach said ‘stay relaxed,’ so I tried to stay relaxed, and it fell into shape,” said McCaw, son of Ed and Kelly McCaw.
He struggled to complete passes early but hit on a 54-yard pass play at the start of the 4th quarter, then connected with Clayton Jones for a 28-yard touchdown pass with 10 minutes, 25 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
That score ignited Ignacio. The Bobcats forced a fumble, scored another touchdown and recovered an onside kick after that strike.
“We didn’t know whether he would be able to pass because our linemen are quite a bit bigger than him,” Ignacio coach Lupe Huerta said. “We let him have at it. I was really impressed with him.”
The game represented an improvement from last season’s blowout loss at Aspen, but Huerta knows his team needs to improve before next week’s game against Dolores Huerta in Pueblo.
“We had some holes there; they just weren’t hitting them,” he said. “The passing game is there, with Adison it’s just going to get better.”
kgrabowski@durangoherald.com
