<\/p>\n
Win and you\u2019re in?<\/p>\n
Maybe.<\/p>\n
With Dove Creek and Mancos tied in the Mountain league standings with mirroring 6-2 records, the winner in their match-up Friday in Mancos will likely lock up a spot in the state playoffs.<\/p>\n
Surveying the 8-man leagues, there is the possibility that both teams find themselves seeded in the 16-team tournament regardless.<\/p>\n
But a win would make either team feel more secure about their postseason chances.<\/p>\n
Mancos heads into Friday\u2019s contest riding an emotional high, after winning on the last play of the game last week against Sangre de Cristo.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs \u2013 after falling to conference leader Sargent \u2013 are looking to end the regular season on a win.<\/p>\n
The two teams, situated 51 miles apart, are eerily similar: based on the run, with multiple backs showcasing different styles.<\/p>\n
Mancos\u2019 speed guy is Axel Bonde. Dove Creek\u2019s is Case Baughman. And both are overcoming injuries from last week\u2019s games.<\/p>\n
Then there are the power backs: Everett Strazza-Whalen for the Blue Jays and Scott Gatlin for the Bulldogs.<\/p>\n
While Bonde and Baughman utilize their quickness to make defenders miss, Strazza-Whalen and Gatlin simply put their heads down and run over any tackler brave enough to get in their way.<\/p>\n
Finally, both offenses snap the ball into the hands of quarterbacks with excellent running ability, Drew Morgan and Jordan Ernst.<\/p>\n
The difference between the two \u2013 and the Bulldogs\u2019 major advantage \u2013 is Dove Creek\u2019s size up front.<\/p>\n
With Spencer Gatlin, Dante Gallegos and Beau Hemphill on the line for the Bulldogs, Austin Howerton, Liam Cooper and the Blue Jays linemen will have their hands full.<\/p>\n
Both teams primarily look to run the ball and grind out drives, and both teams will try to force the other to throw.<\/p>\n
So it would be a major boost if one team can successfully operate outside of its comfort zone and move the ball through the air.<\/p>\n
With wins over both Mancos and Dove Creek, Sargent has a firm grasp on the Mountain league.<\/p>\n
Friday\u2019s game between the Blue Jays and Bulldogs will determine which team slides into the No. 2 spot, and most likely, continues playing into November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dove Creek square off tonight in a battle for league playoff spot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[80,83],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-108566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-dove-creek","tag-mancos"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108566","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=108566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108566"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=108566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}