{"id":108418,"date":"2015-11-04T23:13:50","date_gmt":"2015-11-05T06:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-to-face-west-grand-as-state-playoffs-begin\/"},"modified":"2015-11-04T23:13:50","modified_gmt":"2015-11-05T06:13:50","slug":"dove-creek-to-face-west-grand-as-state-playoffs-begin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dove-creek-to-face-west-grand-as-state-playoffs-begin\/","title":{"rendered":"Dove Creek to face West Grand as state playoffs begin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Scott
Scott Gatlin, Spencer Gatlin and Dante Gallegos will look to utilize their size advantage against West Grand in their playoff opener on Saturday.<\/span>Jardyn Angell\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

There are multiple story lines in the Dove Creek Bulldogs\u2019 (7-2) playoff game against the West Grand Mustangs (8-1) on Saturday.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Mustangs\u2019 junior quarterback, JD Guess, was killed in a single-vehicle accident while driving home from practice.<\/p>\n

And after the team rallied together to win its game against Vail Christian the next day, head coach Chris Brown is tied for most career coaching wins in Colorado high school football history with 306.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek head coach Shane Baughman understands the amount of attention that will be on the Mustangs in the matchup, and how the events could be a distraction.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs must also travel nearly seven hours and stay overnight before the game.<\/p>\n

Baughman said on Tuesday that the Bulldogs would show tribute to Guess and the Mustangs by wearing a purple No. 9 patch on their helmets, but he isn\u2019t concerned with the travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cHonestly, our kids here are so used to travel,\u201d he said. \u201cWith other sports too, we just travel. They\u2019re used to it, so we usually don\u2019t even talk about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baughman and the Bulldogs will try to remain focused on the aspects of the game, like the Mustangs\u2019 unusually wide splits on the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir splits are way wider than normal,\u201d Baughman noted. \u201cAnd it\u2019s just to create angles.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that while it may appear simple to blitz through the gaps, that it is nearly impossible, and instead of easily breaking through the line, you can blitz yourself out of the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to stay with our regular defense,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s gotten us this far.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs will see a lot of read-option plays, and the Mustangs pull guards frequently, while averaging 310 rushing yards per game.<\/p>\n

However, with Spencer Gatlin, Beau Hemphill and Dante Gallegos up front, the Bulldogs have a size advantage.<\/p>\n

They will just need to be disciplined and stay in their lanes during deceiving read-option plays.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs average 250 rushing yards per game themselves, but last week against Mancos they opened it up, with Jordan Ernst completing 16-of-21 passes for 241 yards.<\/p>\n

Baughman noted that with the return of Colin Hobbs \u2013 who hauled in 13 catches for 183 yards and two scores last week \u2013 the Bulldogs\u2019 passing game has more options.<\/p>\n

However, it doesn\u2019t mean that they will be changing their offense to an air raid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just going to go in there and see what\u2019s open and what\u2019s working,\u201d Baughman said.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek will stay overnight on Friday, with kickoff scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday in Kremmling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bulldogs emphasize focus amid distractions<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108419,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[80],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-108418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-dove-creek"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108418"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=108418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}