{"id":31863,"date":"2023-09-09T18:34:29","date_gmt":"2023-09-10T00:34:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-bears-football-surges-to-home-opening-win\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:47:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:47:23","slug":"dolores-bears-football-surges-to-home-opening-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-bears-football-surges-to-home-opening-win\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores Bears football surges to home-opening win"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ty
Ty Gaddis of the Dolores Bears catches a pass and runs in to score the first touchdown for Dolores. Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

DOLORES \u2013 It\u2019ll be hard to wipe the smile off the faces of the Dolores football players all week.<\/p>\n

For good reason \u2013 the Bears picked up their second win of the young campaign, overpowering Soroco 30-20 in a game in which the final score didn\u2019t fully reflect Dolores\u2019 dominance.<\/p>\n

For the first time since 2018, the Bears have multiple wins in a season, and for the first time since 2006, Dolores sits at 2-0.<\/p>\n

Under the guidance of second-year head coach Joseph Gonzales, DHS has its largest roster in years, and the Bears used their depth to wear down the visiting Rams under the warm afternoon weather.<\/p>\n

\"Quarterback
Quarterback Tray Traweek tries to stay in bounds after picking up a first down for Dolores.Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Michael
Michael Rantz takes the ball down the sideline for a Dolores first down. Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ty
Ty Gaddis of the Dolores Bears catches a pass and runs in to score the first touchdown for Dolores. Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Ethin
Ethin Williford of the Dolores Bears intercepts a Soroco pass Thursday. Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Bear senior Ty Gaddis scored a pair of touchdowns, joining classmates Zach Taylor and Brody Gottman in finding the end zone to propel Dolores to a 30-6 lead late in the third quarter, before the visiting Rams made a late surge to make the home crowd sweat out the final seconds.<\/p>\n

Soroco (1-2) scored first on a pick-six from Tanner Cole-Wheeler midway through the first quarter, but the Bears made an immediate response, driving downfield to Ram territory. From there, junior quarterback Tray Traweek connected with Gaddis on a 42-yard strike to knot the score a six-all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d been talking about in practice this past week,\u201d said Traweek of the first Dolores touchdown, \u201cwe were hoping to catch them off guard, and I knew that Ty would be able to beat his defender.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaddis added a 6-yard burst late in the second quarter, followed by a 20-yard fumble recovery from Gottman to expand the lead to 22-6 right before the intermission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second quarter was a mood-changer for the team,\u201d added Gaddis, \u201cand it got the game going in the direction we needed it to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores\u2019 defense swarmed all afternoon, making life difficult for the two different quarterbacks that Soroco lined up. Senior Ethin Williford took charge for the Bears secondary, collecting an interception and piling up stops for the Bear defense.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was incredible, what we pulled off today,\u201d said Williford after the win, \u201cI\u2019m proud of each of our guys \u2013 we were swarm tackling all day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Assistant coach Travis Rantz took the role of interim head coach for the contest with Gonzales out of town, and the Bears dialed up plenty of big plays to sophomore Michael Rantz, as well as senior Zach Taylor, whose 4-yard score late in the third quarter appeared to put the game out of reach.<\/p>\n

Sophomores TJ Adie and Deven Winter, alongside freshman Darren Hicks enjoyed big games for the Bears, while junior Micah Vrtatko helped the offensive line to provide time for Traweek to beat the Rams with his arm and his legs.<\/p>\n

Soroco scored twice in the final five minutes to create some nervy moments for a strong home crowd, but as the clock hit triple-zeroes, the Bears celebrated with a joy that will carry long into the upcoming week.<\/p>\n

\u201cFundamentally, we saw continuous improvement,\u201d said interim coach Travis Rantz, \u201cthe kids are stoked to win at home for the first time in six years, so it\u2019s awesome for them and for the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t dwell on the mental mistakes,\u201d added Rantz. \u201cThe kids stuck to their assignments, we swarmed the ball \u2013 it was great to see their hard work pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis senior group has been working so hard since our freshman year,\u201d said Williford, \u201cso these past two wins have meant everything to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores now faces back-to-back road games against Rangely (Sept. 15) and Plateau Valley (Sept. 23), looking to continue their success against the eight-man Northwest League. The Bears return home for Homecoming weekend on Sept. 29 for a 7 p.m. kickoff, when they face Norwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is for the community, as much as anything,\u201d said Traweek, \u201cgoing into the season, we had the mentality that no one believes in us \u2013 so we\u2019re going out there knowing that the ones who believe are the guys right next you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great start to the season,\u201d added Gaddis, \u201cnow we want to keep it up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dolores tops Soroco, moves to 2-0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-31863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31863","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=31863"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31863\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81593,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31863\/revisions\/81593"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31863"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=31863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}