{"id":37707,"date":"2022-10-22T20:18:53","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T02:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bulldogs-top-bears-in-senior-send-off\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:39:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:39:16","slug":"bulldogs-top-bears-in-senior-send-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bulldogs-top-bears-in-senior-send-off\/","title":{"rendered":"Bulldogs top Bears in senior send-off"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dove
Dove Creek senior Audric Chadd leads the Bulldogs out onto the field in their Senior Night contest against Dolores on Friday, Oct. 22. (Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

While Friday night\u2019s contest against Dolores began with a senior farewell, Dove Creek can rest assured that their seven members of the Class of 2023 haven\u2019t seen their final action at the Soper Sports Complex this year.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs officially clinched the top spot in the Mountain League, controlling all three phases against the Bears in their 63-0 victory.<\/p>\n

Dove Creek (8-0, 3-0 League 1) flummoxed the Bears offense from the opening snap of the game, scoring two defensive touchdowns in the first two minutes, while adding three safeties and a kickoff return for a touchdown on their way to the win.<\/p>\n

Entering the weekend as the No. 2 team by the Colorado High School Activities Association, Shane Baughman\u2019s Bulldogs have looked the part through eight games. Only twice this season have the \u2018Dogs scored less than half a century on their opponents, so the path to the 8-man state championship game appears to go through Dove Creek.<\/p>\n

The Bulldog sdefensive front of seniors Audric Chadd, Taber Dejane and junior Tyson Beanland, with the rotation of seniors Gaige Cressler and Dustin Glover, took turns hassling Bears sophomore quarterback Tray Traweek all evening.<\/p>\n

Bulldog leading tackler Quaden Huffaker anchors a linebacking core that is among the fastest in the classification, while senior Cole Taber and the secondary kept a pass-oriented Bears offense in check.<\/p>\n

Taber corralled an interception of Traweek on the first play from scrimmage and returned it for a score to set the tone, and the Bulldogs never looked back. Two defensive scores later \u2013 a fumble return and a safety \u2013 and Dove Creek held a 14-0 lead before their offense took their first snap.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got a quick jump on the ball all night,\u201d said Chadd, \u201cand that has to do with our technique, which we\u2019ve all been working on.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the Dove Creek offense finally got to work, the \u2018Dogs move the ball efficiently down the field, before Gardner scored the first of five Bulldog rushing touchdowns.<\/p>\n

\"Gage
Gage Buffington, shown running for a gain against Mancos High School earlier this year, scored three touchdowns Friday against Dolores in the Bulldogs\u2019 63-0 win. (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Junior Gage Buffington added three rushing TDs, all before halftime, then returned the opening kickoff of the second half back for his fourth trip to the end zone.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs offensive line opened up holes for Buffington and the rest of Dove Creek\u2019s ball carriers, led by Chadd\u2019s dominance at left guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our biggest strengths this year has been our depth,\u201d said Chadd, \u201cso our guys can go 100% all the time, because the next man up is going to bring the same level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dolores (0-6, 0-3 League 1) enjoyed some of their brightest moments through the air, as Traweek did find more a rhythm in the second quarter, connecting with Michael Millard for a 65-yard completion. However, an interception stymied the Bears\u2019 best threat of the night.<\/p>\n

First-year head coach Joseph Gonzales\u2019 Bears kept battling hard throughout the evening, as junior Ty Gaddis forced a fumble, and freshman Parker Conrad collected a handful of receptions from Traweek.<\/p>\n

In the closing moments, the Dove Creek upperclassmen gave way to the next wave of Bulldogs, allowing the seniors to reflect on their progression through four years at Dove Creek High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cFreshman year seems like yesterday,\u201d said Chadd, \u201cand to celebrate our journey as a group made the night more special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since their freshman season, the Class of 2023 has posted a record of 24-10, including their historic run to the state semifinals two years ago. Now, their sights are set on a bigger prize with the postseason looming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve played together since the peewee level,\u201d said Baughman of his seniors, \u201cand they\u2019ve been such a tight-knit group \u2013 it was nice to have them share that moment with family and friends in their final night game here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dove Creek preserved its second shutout of the season, and now moves on to face Sargent, looking to close out an unbeaten regular season. The Bulldogs face the Farmers for a Friday night clash on Oct. 28 at 6 p.m. Dolores, meanwhile, will finish out their 2022 campaign with a trip to Sanford, to also be played at 6 p.m. on the 28th.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

scores on defense, special teams in victory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37708,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,926,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37707","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=37707"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83757,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37707\/revisions\/83757"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37707"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}