{"id":123300,"date":"2013-11-06T23:04:17","date_gmt":"2013-11-07T06:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/seniors-shine-as-bears-play-through-rough-year\/"},"modified":"2013-11-06T23:04:17","modified_gmt":"2013-11-07T06:04:17","slug":"seniors-shine-as-bears-play-through-rough-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/seniors-shine-as-bears-play-through-rough-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Seniors shine as Bears play through rough year"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"sam
sam green\/dolores star<br><br>bears' junior Mikeal Ford carries the ball during his team's homecoming matchup against the Center Vikings.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Challenging as the season was, solid play by several young players and renewed dedication provided hope for the future.<\/p>\n

BIG WIN HIGHLIGHTS<\/p>\n

SEASON<\/p>\n

In a season short on highlights, the Bears delivered one with a 34-0 road victory over Del Norte on Sept. 27.<\/p>\n

Keying the Bears\u2019 victory was a 27-point fourth-quarter explosion, led by senior Ethen Upton, who finished with 168 yards rushing, 81 yards passing and three total touchdowns.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kids got fired up and started executing,\u201d said Bears\u2019 head coach Chris Trusler.<\/p>\n

OFFENSE STRUGGLES<\/p>\n

THROUGHOUT YEAR<\/p>\n

To say that the Bears\u2019 offense struggled during the 2013 season would be an understatement.<\/p>\n

Plagued by poor offensive line play, the inability to accurately snap the ball and a lack of consistent play from the quarterback position, the Bears did not score in five of the team\u2019s eight games.<\/p>\n

More often than not, the offense moved backwards, leaving players and coaches upset and frustrated.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause our offensive line is not getting the job done, we were unable to move the ball,\u201d said Trusler after his team\u2019s 46-0 loss to Monte Vista on Oct. 11.<\/p>\n

SENIORS DELIVER<\/p>\n

IN FINAL SEASON<\/p>\n

Bringing stability during the difficult season, four key seniors contributed for the Bears on and off the field.<\/p>\n

Inside the lines, Ethen Upton, Evan Moore, Deano Valdez and Rusher Ammon delivered big plays while anchoring a Bears\u2019 defense.<\/p>\n

Off the field, all three players stepped up to lead younger players, while instilling pride in the Bears\u2019 program.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll four guys, they put leadership first,\u201d said Trusler of the team\u2019s seniors.<\/p>\n

AN EXCITING FUTURE<\/p>\n

As difficult as the 2013 was for the Dolores Bears, the future appears bright for the team.<\/p>\n

Several key contributors, including quarterbacks Triston Medina and Jalen Balderrama, will return with strength and experience under their belts.<\/p>\n

With a year of hard work on the field and in the weight room, the Bears should improve in 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

green\/dolores star<br><br>bears’ junior Mikeal Ford carries the ball during his team’s homecoming matchup against the Center Vikings.du1-i-syn Challenging as the season was, solid play by several young players and renewed dedication provided hope for the future. BIG WIN HIGHLIGHTS SEASON In a season short on highlights, the Bears delivered one with a 34-0 road […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":123301,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6362],"tags":[188],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-123300","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ds-sports","tag-dolores-star"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123300","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=123300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123300\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123300"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=123300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}