After two consecutive 7-3 seasons, the Bulldogs fell to 4-5 last season. But head coach Shane Baughman said they can return to form this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were right in the thick of it in all the games last year,\u201d Baughman said. \u201cIt was just a play here or a play there. Maybe our leadership will help us pull through some of that stuff this year.\u201d<\/p>\n
With 10 seniors on the roster, the Bulldogs will have plenty of leaders this season.<\/p>\n
Specifically, they have three returning all-conference seniors to look up to in quarterback and linebacker Jordan Ernst, offensive and defensive lineman Spencer Gatlin, and running back and linebacker Case Baughman.<\/p>\n
They also have new players in sophomore Tristen Martinez and freshman Ryan Martinez, who recently moved to Dove Creek from Texas.<\/p>\n
\u201cTristen\u2019s got probably the best hands on the team,\u201d said Baughman.<\/p>\n
Lining up under center for the third year in a row, Ernst will be the one throwing to Martinez. And he can breathe easy knowing he\u2019ll be protected when he drops back.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re big,\u201d Baughman chuckled. \u201cThis is the biggest we\u2019ve ever been.\u201d<\/p>\n
The big bodies he referred to are Spencer Gatlin, Beau Hemphill, Ricky Adams and Cody Kennedy, who will play on the offensive line. The Bulldogs\u2019 wealth of size allows them to move junior Scott Gatlin from the offensive line to full back, and Case Baughman from full back to tailback.<\/p>\n
Baughman is still working through personnel to determine the best fit at each position, and the Bulldogs get their first taste of action on Friday, Aug. 28 in a scrimmage against Dolores.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
two consecutive 7-3 seasons, the Bulldogs fell to 4-5 last season. But head coach Shane Baughman said they can return to form this year. \u201cWe were right in the thick of it in all the games last year,\u201d Baughman said. \u201cIt was just a play here or a play there. Maybe our leadership will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":109948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[21,80],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-109947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-cortez","tag-dove-creek"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109947","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=109947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109947"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=109947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}