{"id":56818,"date":"2013-10-09T21:47:15","date_gmt":"2013-10-10T03:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-drop-tight-homecoming-game\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T15:56:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T15:56:39","slug":"bears-drop-tight-homecoming-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bears-drop-tight-homecoming-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears drop tight homecoming game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"With
With seconds to go, Deano Valdez battled with a Center defender for the ball at the goal line, but Center came up with the ball ending a chance for the Bears to win the game.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Generally speaking, when a team\u2019s defense pitches a shutout, the team wins. Not so for the Dolores Bears, however, who fell 2-0 to the Center Vikings on Friday, Oct. 4.<\/p>\n

Throughout the contest, the Bears\u2019 offense was inept, fumbling twice on their first possession and failing to accurately snap the ball throughout the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust like every game we\u2019ve had this year, we just haven\u2019t been able to overcome simple mental mistakes,\u201d said Bears\u2019 head coach Chris Trusler. \u201cIf the ball doesn\u2019t make it from the center to the quarterback, there is no way that an offense can be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the Bears\u2019 offense struggled, the defense shined, led by seniors Ethan Upton, Evan Moore and junior Dalton Madden. Upton registered 14 tackles and an interception, Moore recorded 14 tackles and Madden had an interception.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur defense did an outstanding job the whole game,\u201d Trusler said. \u201cCenter got down inside our 5-yard-line multiple times and we were able to stop them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Late in the fourth quarter however, one Vikings\u2019 drive deep into Dolores territory doomed the Bears.<\/p>\n

After stopping the Vikings on a 4th and goal, the Bears took over at their own 1-yard-line and after Madden dropped back to pass and collided with Upton, who was moving forward into pass protection, the Vikings tackled the Bears in the Dolores end-zone for a safety.<\/p>\n

Down 2-0 later in the fourth quarter, Upton brought the crowd to its feet with an interception return for a touchdown, which, if it had stood, would have given the Bears the lead.<\/p>\n

An illegal block in the back by a Bears\u2019 player voided the touchdown, however, thus deflating the home team and the home crowd.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s was a mental mistake,\u201d said Trusler. \u201cOne bad decision can ultimately affect any play on the field. When kids are hyped up and wanting to give it all that they have on every play, sometimes things like that are going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clearly deflated, but in no way down and out, the Bears would drive into Dolores territory, but their chances would end when Madden\u2019s pass into the end zone was intercepted by a Vikings defensive back after the ball caromed off Bears\u2019 senior Deano Valdez.<\/p>\n

Center would subsequently run out the clock, improving their record to 5-1 on the year. With the loss, the Bears dropped to 1-4 on the season.<\/p>\n

Next up for Dolores will be a road matchup against Monte Vista on Oct. 11.<\/p>\n

\u201cMonte Vista is a real tough team,\u201d Trusler said. \u201cThey run a different style of offense than we have been playing. My seniors have never beaten Monte Vista in their high school career. We would like to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Defense shines in 2-0 loss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[188,13,427],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-56818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-star","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-prep-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56818","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=56818"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62686,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/56818\/revisions\/62686"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/56819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=56818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=56818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=56818"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=56818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}