{"id":109658,"date":"2015-09-09T19:20:54","date_gmt":"2015-09-10T01:20:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-loses-lb-donaldson-in-38-6-loss-to-coal-ridge\/"},"modified":"2015-09-09T19:20:54","modified_gmt":"2015-09-10T01:20:54","slug":"dolores-loses-lb-donaldson-in-38-6-loss-to-coal-ridge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-loses-lb-donaldson-in-38-6-loss-to-coal-ridge\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores loses LB Donaldson in 38-6 loss to Coal Ridge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Dolores
Dolores junior Tristen Medina runs with the ball during the Bears' 38-6 loss to Coal Ridge on Friday.<\/span>Sam Green\/Dolores Star<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

With 3:42 seconds left in the first quarter and the score tied at zero, Branden Donaldson took flight.<\/p>\n

After dropping into coverage from his linebacker position, the Dolores senior moved toward his left, mirroring Coal Ridge quarterback Jackson Sargent as he rolled out.<\/p>\n

Sargent released a pass intended for his receiver breaking toward the sideline, but Donaldson had already jumped the route and begun his leap.<\/p>\n

Diving in front of the Titans receiver, Donaldson intercepted the pass, pinning it to his chest as he careened into the white paint marking the 10-yard line on the field.<\/p>\n

He immediately popped up with the ball, showing that he had completed the catch.<\/p>\n

But then he grabbed at his arm with his shoulder slouching.<\/p>\n

Donaldson had picked off the Coal Ridge pass, but he had broken his collarbone in the process, likely ending his season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you lose one of your key players, it affects the whole team,\u201d said head coach Chris Trusler.<\/p>\n

\u201cA kid like Donaldson is not replaceable,\u201d he said. \u201cI mean, he was our punt returner, kick returner, long snapper, running back and linebacker.\u201d<\/p>\n

Donaldson made his mark defensively with the early interception, and the Bears defense hung tough without him.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Talon Zwicker prowled the field, racking up 7\u00c2\u00bd tackles, which included three for losses, and senior Jalen Balderrama and junior Tristen Medina each pulled down interceptions.<\/p>\n

Offensively, before exiting the game, Donaldson had four carries for 22 yards. Trusler tried out multiple replacements in search of a running back to fill in for the 2014 Southern Peaks League All-Conference selection.<\/p>\n

Senior Josh McCoy rushed for 19 yards, sophomore Austin Hackney ran for 16 and Zwicker and freshman Skieler Grooms also got carries, with the team rushing for 101 yards.<\/p>\n

The Bears had players step up, and while they missed Donaldson\u2019s presence both offensively and defensively, their Achilles heel was their special teams.<\/p>\n

They gave up a touchdown on a punt return in the first quarter, and had three punts blocked, giving the Coal Ridge offense a short field.<\/p>\n

The first blocked punt led to an 11-yard touchdown pass for the Titans, and they turned the second and third into drives that culminated in rushing scores.<\/p>\n

The Bears\u2019 mistakes led to points, but they only trailed 19-0 at half.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids fought the whole game,\u201d Trusler said. \u201cThey didn\u2019t give up. At halftime we were down 19 to nothing, but the game was still in reach. Coal Ridge just came and executed better than we did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores hung around, behind 19-0 entering the fourth quarter, but the Titans piled on three scores in the final frame to go ahead 38-0.<\/p>\n

The Bears\u2019 found the end zone on their final drive, after Balderrama hooked up with Zwicker for a 25-yard gain and an 11-yard carry by Grooms set them up in the red zone.<\/p>\n

Then, Balderrama found junior Tristen Medina on a 24-yard touchdown pass with less than ten seconds remaining.<\/p>\n

Medina finished with four catches, 49 yards and the Bears\u2019 lone score, and Balderrama passed for 92 yards, one touchdown and an interception.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week we\u2019ve just got to fix some mental errors,\u201d Trusler said after the 38-6 loss. \u201cMake sure the offensive linemen know who they\u2019ve got to block in different scenarios, things like that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bears will travel to Monument Valley, Utah on Friday for their first matchup against the Monument Valley Cougars (0-1) at 7:00 p.m.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will be our first time against them,\u201d Trusler said. \u201cWe really don\u2019t know very much about them. I think they\u2019re about equal in size, as far as players, that we are. But I think we\u2019re going to do well against them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linebacker likely out for season with broken collarbone<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109659,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6362],"tags":[44,188],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-109658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-sports","tag-dolores","tag-dolores-star"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109658","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=109658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109658"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=109658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}