The Douglas Bulldogs air assault continued Friday in a thrilling 27-20 win over their border town rivals the Nogales Apaches at Armando DeLucas Stadium.
 Bruce Whetten /Douglas Dispatch Bulldog quarterback CJ Teran gets leveled by a Nogales player as he lets go of the ball in Douglas’ home opener with Nogales Friday night. Teran passed for 334 yards in the Bulldogs 27-20 win. Friday’s win snapped a three-year skid to Nogales who had not lost to Douglas since 2005. |
The win was the second straight for Douglas who is averaging 38 points per game in its first two games this season and is currently ranked sixth in the 4A DII power rankings.
Bulldog quarterback senior CJ Teran had his most impressive game of his career Friday night throwing for 334-yards on 20 of 29 attempts with four touchdowns and two interceptions.
His performance made him the top rated quarterback in southern Arizona – that according to the Arizona Daily Star’s high school football website.
Teran’s counterpart Keith Zuniga burned the Douglas defense for 269 yards making him the No. 2 quarterback Friday night according to the Star.
One of Teran’s favorite targets in the home opener was senior speedster Joel Bello who reportedly runs a 4.1 40-yard sprint. Bello finished with two touchdowns on eight receptions for 173 yards good enough to make him the top receiver in southern Arizona that night. He also had two key interceptions in the fourth quarter each ending Nogales drives.
Teran’s other target Friday night, Spencer Grijalva, finished with nine receptions for 103-yards and two TD’s placing him in the top four.
For the second straight game the Bulldogs came out throwing moving from their own 18 down to Nogales’ 22 before an interception thwarted the opening drive.
Following a Nogales punt on its first series the Bulldogs were back in business capitalizing this time on a 52-yard TD pass from Teran to Bello. Michael Abrigo’s extra point kick gave Douglas a 7-0 lead.
In the second quarter Teran had TD strikes of 11 yards to Grijalva and 18 to Bello building a 20-0 lead with 1:33 left in the half.
Following Douglas’ third score Nogales took advantage of a blown defensive coverage to fire a 70-yard TD pass of its own making the score 20-7 at the half.
On its first possession of the second half the Bulldogs used a 12 play 63-yard drive that chewed up over five minutes on the clock scoring when Grijalva stretched into the end zone on a fourth and goal from the nine increasing its lead to 27-7.
Later in the quarter Nogales would score on a 36 yard run on a fourth and three making the score 27-14.
In the fourth quarter Bello interceptions stopped Nogales drives while preserving the Douglas lead.
With the Nogales defense keying on Bello and Grijalva in the fourth quarter and the ground game having very little success Teran went to Diego Chavez who had three key receptions in the final quarter allowing the Bulldog offense to take time of the clock.
Douglas led 27-14 with just under a minute remaining. Teran and the Bulldog offense took over the ball and attempted to run out the clock. Following a series of kneel downs time mismanagement gave the Apaches back the ball with three seconds remaining.
Nogales completed an 18-yard TD pass with no time left on the clock pulling within seven as time expired.
As successful as the passing game was the ground game struggled for both teams as Douglas ran for 65 yards on 36 attempts while the Apaches had 24 carries for 29 yards.
The Bulldogs were hindered by their second straight game where they were penalized for over 100-yards.
“The passing game has come around for us,” Coach Dick Keith said after the game. “CJ is throwing a great ball. The line is giving him time to throw. … Now I’m a little disappointed in our running game.”
Keith said having Teran, Grijalva and Bello gives Douglas a triple threat that this team can’t do without.
Now, he said, they just need to work on getting their running backs going and cutting down on the mental mistakes.
Defensively the Bulldogs would stop Nogales then there would be a mental lapse which the Apaches would capitalize on.
“I thought our speed matched theirs,” defensive coordinator Ron Ellsworth said. “They were not able to get downfield that much on us. When they did it was because we had mental lapses.”
Ellsworth said a blown coverage led to the first Nogales touchdown, a busted gap by one of the Bulldogs led to the second score and the third score should not have happened at all.
“We gave up some big plays but we made bigger plays in stopping them,” he said. “This team is very special. If we can eliminate our mistakes we’re going places.”
“Our defense is sound,” Coach Keith said. “We just have to eliminate the mistakes.”
Teran says he’s having fun quarterbacking this explosive offense.
“Having Bello and Grijalva to throw to makes my job so much easier,” he said.
Bello and Grijalva have both told Teran to just get the ball in their area and they will do their best to get it.
“Playing in this kind of offense is awesome,” Bello said. “Having the success we’re having now is helping this team build confidence.”
Grijalva sat out most of last year with an injury. He has come back this year with new sense of desire.
“I’m so happy Coach Keith has faith in me to know that anyone of us can make plays to help this team,” he said. “I’m having a blast right now. …. This is something we’ve been talking about since we were freshmen. We want to go out with a bang as seniors.”
The 2-0 Bulldogs take on surprisingly 3-0 Desert View, who is ranked third in the 4A DI rankings, Friday at 7 in Tucson. Desert View has outscored its opponents 102-7 this year but those wins have come against Cholla, Pueblo and Rincon.
“We’ve got the football team to beat just about anybody just so long as we don’t beat ourselves,” Keith said. “It should be a fun game.”
Junior varsity
The Douglas Junior Varsity kicked off its season last Thursday with a 26-8 win over the Desert View JV’s.
Diego Salazar had touchdown runs of 20, 55 and 75-yards and Samuel Bello caught a TD pass from Diego Morales.
“Salazar had a tremendous night collecting over 150-yards rushing and Filipe Linares contributed close to a 100,” Coach Clint Hill said after the game “Coach Daniel Ellsworth’s defense did an outstanding job. And Morales did a good job at quarterback considering the fact that this was his first game of his career at quarterback and he had only practiced for two weeks at the position. We do however have some areas to work on.”
Douglas, 1-0, is off this week and will play at Catalina next week.
Freshmen
Douglas’ freshmen got their season off to a wild start with a wild 47-36 win over the Desert View freshmen Thursday.
Grant Watkins ran for 216-yards on 13 carries and scored five TD’s. Ozzie Moreno had 12 carries for 175-yards and a TD. Dylan Guerrero was 5 of 10 in passing for 65-yards and Marlene Gonzalez, the lone female on the team, had a fumble recovery.
Douglas’ freshman coach Gilbert Rojas said this was a great effort by the kids.
Clinging to a 40-36 lead with just over three minutes left in the game, Rojas’ son Fernando picked off a Jaguar pass and ran it back for the score sealing the Douglas win.
“The score doesn’t indicate it but defense played really well once we settled down,” Rojas said. “We only gave up 2 touchdowns in second half. We were pleased also with our overall team play.”
The young Bulldogs return to play Sept. 24 hosting Catalina.
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