KEITH PIERCE (7), quarterback for Dolores County High School, rolls out and tries to escape from would-be Akron tacklers on Saturday afternoon during the Class A Quarterfinals State Football Playoffs at Weber Park Field in Dove Creek. Pierce scrambled but didn’t go far. It was that kind of day for the Bulldogs as they suffered a 54-0 loss to the top-ranked Rams.

BY JIM THOMAS
Journal Sports Editor

The Bears and the Bulldogs ended their respective runs on Saturday, Nov. 10, in the Class A State Football Playoffs. Dolores lost at Lyons 32-14 and Dolores County lost at home 54-0 to Akron.

At Lyons, Dolores played well for three quarters — the first, third, and fourth. But high school football is a game of four quarters. It was that second quarter in which the Bears faltered.

"Those turnovers in the second quarter killed us," DHS head coach Don Story reported. "We fumbled three times, two deep in their territory and they scored off those two."

Dolores trailed only 7-6 after the first quarter. On Lyons’ first series, Cullen Zion picked off a pass and raced back up the field untouched 75 yards for a touchdown. The kick failed. Lyons came back when Derek Long ran 55 yards for a TD. The point-after was good.

"We played well up for the whole first quarter. We were right there. We held them to no first downs. They weren’t moving on us," Story said.

Long did the most damage to Dolores. He ran two times for scores, both of about 25 yards out. Bobby Kissel caught a 12-yard pass for a TD late in the quarter. Lyons led 29-6 at the intermission.

"Those fumbles really hurt. Other than that we were staying right with them," he added.

Both teams did not score in the third quarter.

"We would hold them to three and out. We played very well on defense. We weren’t very consistent on offense. We would move the ball some, but then we were forced to punt," Story said.

After Zion passed to Waylon Bennett for a 55-yard gain down to the L3 early in the fourth quarter. Zion then called his own number and Dolores had another score. Bennett threw to Aeson Reed for the two-point conversion.

The final score of the game came thanks to a 30-yard field goal by Lyons. Dolores played very good defense again in the fourth quarter, holding Lyons to no first downs.

Zion completed four of nine passes for only 65 yards. Dolores rushed for 250 yards with Zion picking up nearly 80 of those. Bennett caught all the passes.

"I can’t say enough about these kids. They had a great season thanks to a lot of hard work and determination. To go from 1-8 last season to 8-3 this year and make the quarterfinals is really something to be proud of," Story added.

Top-ranked Akron scored 41 points in the first half, taking advantage of several DCHS mistakes on Saturday afternoon at Weber Park Field in Dolores. The Rams cruised in the second half and the easy win in a Class A State Quarterfinals Football game.

"Nothing went right for us and everything seemed to go their way," DCHS head coach Ken Soper reported.

The Rams took advantage of a fumble and an interception early in the first quarter. And it scored a few more times.

"We had the ball only two plays and we were behind 27-0. It was over with in a hurry. Our gameplan was now gone. We had to do a lot of passing," he added.

Soper said he knows his team could have given Akron a better game if they had not started out as poorly as they did. Akron had a good team and probably would have won, but DCHS just did not have a good day.

In the other quarterfinal games, Wiggins defeated Las Animas 34-13 and Limon defeated Sanford 34-20.

Akron will host Limon while Lyons hosts Wiggins in the semifinals this Saturday, Nov. 17. The finals are set Nov. 24. The Bulldogs finished the year with an 9-2 record.