The Durango High School football team has an upset on its mind.
The Demons closed the season with four wins in a row to earn a spot in the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 3A State Football Playoffs and will play at Cañon City in the first round at 6 p.m. Friday.
“They’re definitely a lot like us,” DHS senior Max Hyson said. “They like to fly around to the ball, and they’re gonna be a good football team. I’m just trying to get our guys loose. We want to play and have fun. It’s a game. (Cañon City) is definitely beatable.”
The Tigers, who went 9-1 this season to earn the No. 4 seed, run a similar offense to the Demons, who got the No. 13 seed after a 7-3 regular season. The Tigers like to use their size and strength to control the line of scrimmage and execute in the ground game to set up the pass.
“They’re not gonna try to fool you. They’re gonna try to muscle you and try to play their style,” DHS head coach David Vogt said. “They don’t care what you’re trying to do, they’re just gonna do what they do well. It’s fun for us because it’s quick reads, and as long as we adjust properly and get hats on the ball, then I think we’ll be good.”
The Demons’ defense will be tested by another great running back in Cañon City’s Kadin Porter.
Porter, a 5-foot-11, 225-pound senior, has run for 1,224 yards and 17 touchdowns this season. He has topped 100 yards rushing four times, including a 248-yard, six-touchdown performance against Pueblo County. He has eclipsed 75 yards rushing in every game this season.
But the Demons’ have been solid against the run this season, and only three opposing players have run for more than 75 yards against them. Bayfield’s Carl Heide and Pueblo East’s Sebastian Benavidez each ran for 115 yards, and Aztec’s Cody Smith ran for 94 yards. Durango lost to Bayfield and Pueblo East but beat Aztec.
“We gotta stop the run – that’s the most important thing,” Vogt said. “If we can force them to throw the ball, that’s where they don’t like to be, especially if we can play deep coverage. If we make them throw the ball, we’ll be all right.”
Cañon City quarterback Zac Hanenberg has completed 57.4 percent of his passes this season for 1,500 yards and 17 TDs with eight interceptions.
The two teams’ passing ability is where they begin to show a difference in their styles.
The Demons are still a run-first offense that uses the ground game to set up play-action passes, but with the emergence of freshman quarterback Jordan Woolverton, Durango’s passing attack has taken a leap forward.
Woolverton took over at quarterback in the second half of the loss to Pueblo East, and in the three and a half games since he has completed 53-of-72 pass attempts for 689 yards and five touchdowns against zero interceptions.
Last week, the Demons torched Harrison 45-0. Harrison loaded the box on defense to slow down Durango’s running game and left its defensive backs on islands to play one-on-one coverage against the Demons’ receivers. Woolverton picked the secondary apart for short completions that added up during the course of the game. He finished the night 12-for-17 for 167 yards and a touchdown.
“It’s actually the exact same defense (as Harrison),” Vogt said of Cañon City. “Our same offensive game plan will be there, so all our guys get two weeks to practice the same plays.”
This will be the fourth meeting between the two football programs.
According to local football historian Dan Ford, Cañon City and Durango have met three times prior to Friday night’s matchup and have split the series 1-1-1. Two of the three previous meetings occurred in the first round of the playoffs. The two teams tied 6-6 during the regular season of 1951, Cañon City beat Durango 21-17 in the first round of the 1983 playoffs and the Demons beat the Tigers 33-9 in the 1993 playoffs.
The ’83 meeting was held in Durango and shares a unique connection to this season. The quarterback for the Demons in that game was Cole Hyson, the father of two current Demons in sophomore defensive end Fynn Hyson and senior linebacker/running back/quarterback Max Hyson.
If the Demons can upset the Tigers, it would set up two different scenarios the Demons in which they would be content. A win would put Durango against the winner of No. 5 Erie and No. 12 Pueblo East. Should Pueblo East earn the win, it would set up a rematch between the two squads that would be played in Pueblo. Pueblo East beat Durango 38-16 on Oct. 6 in Pueblo, and the Demons want revenge. But if Erie holds off the upset-minded Eagles, who have won the last three 3A state titles, the Demons would get to host Erie in the second round, which would be better in the Demons’ eyes, as Hyson said they’d prefer a home playoff game.
“I’ve played in one playoff game here my sophomore year. We played against Aurora Central and it was probably the best football game I’ve ever been a part of – it was so fun,” Hyson said. “It was a Saturday day game, too, and we filled the stands. It was pretty special.”
kschneider@durangoherald.com
If you go
Who: No. 13 Durango at No. 4 Cañon City
What: CHSAA Class 3A State Football Playoffs
When: 6 p.m. Friday
Where: Cañon City High School
Listen Live: KKDG 99.7 FM
Twitter: @karltschneider
