“If you would have told us this is where we would have been after that Montrose game, I would have thought you were crazy.”
Those were the words of Durango interim head coach Ryan Woolverton after his Demons football squad beat Vista Ridge at home 20-14 at home on Friday night.
The Demons started the season with a 42-16 loss at Montrose and a lot of questions about the first-year head coach and a new quarterback. The Demons rallied, improved every week and entered their matchup with Vista Ridge 6-3 overall.
Durango’s offense was slow out of the gate and was scoreless in the first quarter for the first time since the Rampart game on Oct. 4. While the Durango offense was ineffective early, it was the defense that kept the Demons in the game.
Defenders like senior Gage Voiles, senior Wyatt Bartel and junior Ayden Casias helped fill the void of senior Braxton Waddell, who’s out for the season after he was involved in a fatal car accident. Waddell’s teammates got in the backfield and made Vista Ridge quarterback Zayden Stevens and his weapons uncomfortable.
Members of Durango’s secondary like senior Cole Pontine, junior Dawson McInnis and senior Malakai Baier made some great plays on Stevens’ aggressive deep shots.
Senior quarterback Cully Feeney got the offense going in the second quarter. The defense held off a frisky Wolves offense in the fourth quarter for a huge win against a Vista Ridge team ranked in the top 15 of 4A.
Durango finished the regular season 7-3 overall and 4-1 in its first year in the 4A Soco 2 League with the win. Vista Ridge fell to 6-4 overall and 3-2 in the 4A Soco 2 League.
“It was pure heart and love for each other tonight,” Woolverton said. “I just told the boys this had to be one of the toughest weeks I've ever had as a coach. They came out, we rode that wave, with Braxton’s deal, that put a damper on the week. These guys just stuck together. We preached it. We knew it was going to be a tough week. It showed how far these guys have come, how much they've stayed together, how much they love each other and how hard they're willing to fight for each other.”
Feeney finished with 109 yards passing, two passing touchdowns and an interception. He also led the team with 58 rushing yards and a rushing touchdown. Junior wide receiver Seb Tripp had 61 yards receiving and a receiving touchdown. Sophomore wide receiver Mason Miller had 20 yards receiving and a receiving touchdown.
Vista Ridge running back Nayshaun Hall had both touchdowns for the Wolves. Stevens had an interception for Vista Ridge before he left the game with a knee injury.
Stevens hit Josiah Wilkins from midfield on a beautiful deep ball for about 40 yards to set up the Wolves inside the 10-yard line late in the first quarter. Hall rushed it in for the score from about a yard out for a 6-0 Vista Ridge lead after the PAT was blocked with 2:28 left in the first quarter.
Durango started its first drive of the second quarter with good field position at the Wolves’ 39-yard line. The Demons didn’t throw the ball deep early in the game. Durango went with a lot of screen passes, quick outs and runs in the first 15 minutes of the game.
“We thought they matched up pretty well with us in the secondary,” Woolverton said. “We saw it on film. Hats off to their coaching staff. They did a hell of a job in the box against us. It’s one of the better coaching staffs we will see and we've faced all year. They made some plays, we made some adjustments. We never totally got it going, but we did enough.”
On third-and-7 from the 16-yard line, Feeney rushed for a hard 6 yards and came up a yard short on fourth down. Senior running back Ryan Dugan powered his way through the middle for a first-and-goal opportunity.
The next play, Feeney found Miller in the middle of the end zone 7-yard touchdown. Durango led 7-6 with 8:09 left in the second quarter.
After almost two-quarters of accurate passing, Stevens threw a poor pass toward the end zone. McInnis was waiting for the ball like it was a punt and picked it off easily and returned it. Shortly after, Feeney threw a poor pass into traffic and he was picked off.
In the third quarter, a drive started at midfield for Durango thanks to a sack by Voiles. On the drive’s first play, Feeney found Tripp in the middle of the field on a slant route. Tripp did the rest and took it down the right side for a 50-yard touchdown. Durango led 14-6 with 6:40 left in the third quarter.
Things went from bad to worse for Vista Ridge when Stevens was hit after throwing the ball and went down, grabbing his knee.
Stevens had to be helped off the field. Two players later, Durango sacked Hall who was running a wildcat formation. The ball came out and Durango recovered. A personal foul on Vista Ridge put the Demons in the red zone.
Feeney rushed down the middle for a 5-yard touchdown and a 20-6 lead with 11:54 left in the game.
Without a true quarterback, the Wolves only ran the ball on their next possession which chewed up a lot of clock. Vista Ridge was successful with this approach and got down to the goal line. Hall rushed it in for the score plus the two-point conversion to make it 20-14 with 4:06 left in the game after a drive that took nearly eight minutes.
“They're big up front and we're not,” Woolverton said. “They leaned on that size and just pounded us in the middle. We made adjustments and they adjusted. The fortunate piece is it did take them eight minutes to score.”
The Demons went three-and-out and Burns punted it to the Wolves’ 36-yard line. Vista Ridge started its drive with 1:41 left. Evan Warren came in to quarterback the last drive for the Wolves. Warren threw three incompletions to lead to fourth-and-10. He threw another one over the middle on fourth down and Durango got the ball at the Wolves’ 36-yard line with 1:17 to go.
Durango ran out the clock until the Demons turned it over on downs with 22 seconds left. Vista Ridge had one deep ball at the end that came up short of the end zone and time expired.
The Demons move on to the 4A state playoffs where they should have a home game. Seeding and matchups come out on Sunday.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
