Among the stars for the Bulldogs during the opening half of the contest was Bailey, who scored the game\u2019s opening touchdown on a 64-yard run around the left side, which, after a successful two-point conversation on a pass from Cressler to Thompson, gave Dove Creek an 8-0 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat play was huge,\u201d said Bailey. \u201cWe had great blocking, and I had an open hole. All I saw was sunlight, and I went.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also starring for Dove Creek during the game\u2019s opening eight minutes was the team\u2019s speedy defense, led by senior linebacker Hayden Gray and senior defensive end Austin Beanland, who consistently pressured Rangely quarterback Anthony Lujan and delivered several big hits.<\/p>\n
Although the strong-armed Lujan did manage to connect with tight end Ryan Richens for an 82-yard touchdown pass with 5:36 left in the opening quarter to make the game 8-6, the senior quarterback consistently struggled to set his feet and throw the ball accurately.<\/p>\n
\u201cUs defensive linemen just wanted to get a pass rush on him while our corners and our backers were doing their thing,\u201d Beanland said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just played hard-nosed football,\u201d Bailey added. \u201cWe kept it original and smacked them hard right in the mouth.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Bulldogs defense kept the Panthers defense in check, Dove Creek\u2019s offense sputtered before managing to score its second touchdown of the game with 43 seconds left in the opening quarter, thanks to a 39-yard run by Cressler off left tackle.<\/p>\n Keying the play were solid blocks by several Dove Creek linemen, including junior Blaine Johnson, who fired off the line and opened a massive hole on the left side through which Cressler managed to break free.<\/p>\n Ahead 16-6 after its second two-point conversation in as many tries, Dove Creek\u2019s defense held strong in spite of efforts by Lujan and his Panthers teammates to push the ball downfield through the air.<\/p>\n \u201cI think our speed was the biggest factor,\u201d Bulldogs head coach Shane Baughman said about his team\u2019s stout defense. \u201cWe have a quick defense, and we rally to the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n The offense helped seal the win late in the game.<\/p>\n Thompson broke at least four tackles in a 25-yard touchdown that gave Dove Creek a 24-6 lead with 7:59 left, and Tyson Beanland followed up with a final defensive highlight by intercepting a pass that was deflected by Austin Beanland at the line of scrimmage.<\/p>\n \u201cI was getting held, and I just saw the ball go up,\u201d the freshman defensive tackle said. \u201cIt came into my arms, and I saw stars.\u201d<\/p>\n As time ticked away, the horns of many of the more than 25 trucks that surrounded the Dove Creek field honked and the capacity crowd roared its approval for a Bulldogs team that had not won a playoff game since 2015.<\/p>\n An 8-yard touchdown pass from Cressler to sophomore Kade Hankins with 6:10 left capped off the scoring for Dove Creek before a late touchdown by Rangely running back Zane Varner made the final score 30-12.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was pretty special for sure,\u201d Baughman said about the win, gained in front of a large home crowd. \u201cIt\u2019s unbelievable right now. The kids deserve it, they worked hard in the weight room all summer long. It\u2019s back to Dove Creek football. It has been a while.\u201d<\/p>\n With their overall record now at 5-1 on the year, the fourth-seeded Bulldogs will prepare for a tough road matchup against five-time defending state champion and No. 1 overall seed Sedgwick County, which defeated Crowley County 45-12.<\/p>\n Although Dove Creek players and coaches agreed that the contest, which will take place in Julesburg on Nov. 28, will be anything but easy, those associated with the Bulldogs program agreed that an upset is not beyond the realm of possibility.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know it\u2019s going to be a tough game no matter what,\u201d Gray said. \u201cWe just gotta go in knowing that anything can happen. Nobody expected us to get this far this year, so why not do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe know what (Sedgwick County) is about,\u201d Baughman said. \u201cWe know that they are five-time defending champs. We\u2019re going to embrace it and go play the game.\u201d<\/p>\n Defense suffocates Rangely, and Bulldogs rush for three touchdowns in 30-12 win<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[80,926,28,29,445,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dove-creek","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-newsletter-lead","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50284","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=50284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87718,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50284\/revisions\/87718"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50284"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}