The Douglas Bulldogs suffered their second straight loss Friday losing 16-6 to the Palo Verde Titans at Douglas High School.
 Bruce Whetten / Douglas Dispatch Douglas’ Joel Bello lays a hit on a Palo Verde running back forcing a fumble Friday night in Gila Regional play. Palo Verde fumbled twice in the final five minutes but the Bulldogs were unable to convert the mistakes into points as Douglas fell 16-6. The Bulldogs host Rio Rico this Friday night in what will be the annual D-Day game. |
The Bulldogs began the game running behind Hunter Long who had four of the first five carries. His fourth carry would be his last of the night as he went down with a knee injury finishing the night with 33 yards and an 8.2 average.
Hector Grijalva and Oscar Rios would step up but the Bulldogs would eventually turn the ball over on downs to Palo Verde coming away with no points.
With 32 seconds left in the first quarter Palo Verde would connect on a 24-yard field goal giving the Titans a 3-0 lead.
Late in the second quarter Rios broke free for a 36-yard touchdown run. The extra point would be wide right and Douglas went in at halftime up 6-3.
At the break Douglas had 135 yards in total offense with 108 coming on the ground. Palo Verde would have 48 yards in total offense with minus six coming on the ground and no first downs.
Both teams had three and out possessions the first two times they touched the ball in the third quarter.
Midway through the third Palo Verde seemed to find a glitch in the Douglas defense and held on to the ball for the final eight plays of the third and the first two plays of the fourth quarter scoring on a 12-yard run 47 seconds into the fourth quarter.
The Titans converted the extra point and took a 10-6 lead.
The Bulldogs ha their chances offensively as Palo Verde would fumble the ball twice in the final five minutes but neither time could the Douglas offense convert.
To make things worse the Bulldogs were stymied by personnel issues twice in succession being penalized for having 12 men on the field. Those two costly penalties sent Douglas from a third and one at the 24 to a third and 11 at the 34.
With time running out and the Bulldogs looking for one last score quarterback AJ Acosta threw a pass towards the end zone which was instead picked off and ran back 82 yards for a score sealing the win for Palo Verde.
Douglas would finish with a 163-161 edge in total offense but the second half belonged to Palo Verde who out gained the Bulldogs 113-28. Douglas didn’t have a first down the second half until 3:29 remained in the game and Palo Verde was called for a personal foul.
Acosta would finish 5 of 15 for 54 yards. Rios would lead the Bulldogs ground game with 18 carries for 79 yards. Grijalva would have six carries for seven yards.
After the game Douglas’ head coach Dick Keith said it was a gallant effort by his kids.
“I’m so proud of these guys,” he said. “This Palo Verde team is very good and these guys stepped up.”
Keith said Long’s injury hurt and Rios, who is just coming back from an injury and is not quite yet in football condition, showed some real guts and courage playing the way he did.
Palo Verde showed a lot of respect for Joel Bello double teaming him on numerous occasions and refusing to kick to him on punts and kickoffs booting the ball out of bounds on numerous occasions.
Keith admitted the personnel issues in the fourth quarter really hurt.
“We’re making mistakes in that area and that’s something we’re going to have to work on,” he said. “I’m not sure what it is unless kids on the sidelines are not staying focused and not being ready when a coach calls on them.”
Douglas’ defensive coach Ron Ellsworth said he changed his defense from a 3-5 to a four man front to stop Palo Verde’s explosive running game and it worked for the most part.
“Their coach made two real good calls on us,” he said. “I’ve always said there are five or six plays in a game that will determine the outcome and those were two right there.”
Ellsworth said his defense did a good job of stopping the Palo Verde backs for very little if any gains and even some key losses in yardage.
“These guys have run over a lot of teams,” Keith said. “They didn’t do that to us tonight. I’m sure they were frustrated by that.”
The Bulldogs, 4-3 overall, 2-2 in league play will host Rio Rico this Friday in the Bulldogs homecoming game.
Junior varsity
In junior varsity play Thursday Douglas lost to Palo Verde 27-13.
Following a scoreless first quarter the Bulldogs got on the board in the second when Diego Morales scored on a three-yard run. Alex Pickel’s extra point gave the Bulldogs a 7-0 lead.
Palo Verde came right back and scored but missed the extra point pulling within one.
On the ensuing possession Morales threw a 65-yard TD pass to Samuel Bello giving Douglas a 13-6 lead at the half.
Palo Verde scored twice in the third quarter taking a 20-13 lead before adding another score in the fourth.
“The kids played well considering the loss of several players who chose to extend their fall break and miss practice prior to the game,” Douglas’ coach Clint Hill said. “We traveled with 20 players. Defensive standouts were Daniel Nelson and Alex Pickel with one interception each and Adam Rojas with double digit solo tackles and several assists from his middle linebacker position.”
The JV’s fall to 1-4 with a road game scheduled for next Thursday at Rio Rico.
Freshmen
The Douglas freshmen won a wild game Thursday night scoring a touchdown in the closing seconds to beat Palo Verde’s freshmen 19-14 at Douglas High School.
Following a scoreless first quarter the Titan freshmen were driving in the second when the Douglas defense stiffened long enough for Grant Watkins to strip the Palo Verde running back of the ball and take off 80 yards the other way for a score giving Douglas a 6-0 lead.
Palo Verde came back and tied the game at 6-6. Just before halftime Watkins threw a 1-yard TD pass to Mark Romero who then kicked the extra point giving Douglas a 13-6 lead at the break.
Palo Verde scored what they thought was the game winning touchdown in the closing minutes. The successful extra point gave the Titans a 14-13 lead.
With time running out and no timeouts the Bulldogs drove 65-yards scoring when Fernando Rojas hit Watkins for a 15-yard TD pass giving Douglas a 19-14 edge with just under a minute remaining.
Watkins finished with 12 carries for 100 yards. He threw a touchdown pass and also caught a TD pass.
Ozzie Moreno had eight carries for 50-yards and Romero four receptions for 135-yards and a touchdown.
The freshmen improve to 3-2 and are off this week as Rio Rico has no freshmen team.
DOUGLAS PALO VERDE First Downs 6 9 Rushing 4 8 Passing 1 1 Penalty 1 0 Total Net Yards 163 161 Net Yards Rushing 109 107 Rushes 34 37 Avg per rush 3.2 2.0 Net Yards Passing 54 54 Comp - Att 5-15 2-6 Yards per pass 3.6 9.0 Had intercepted 1 0 Return Yardage 35 127 Punt ret-yards 2-28 2-34 Kickoff ret-yards 1-7 2-41 Interceptions-yards 0-0 1-52 Fumble ret-yards 0-0 0-0 Punts - Avg 8 - 29 7 - 29 Penalties - Yards 9 - 60 11 - 63 Fumbles - Lost 2 - 1 5 - 2
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS-DOUGLAS PASSING COMP ATT YDS TD/INT LONG AJ Acosta 5 15 54 0/1 27
RUSHING ATT YDS AVG TD LONG Oscar Rios 18 79 4.4 1 36t Hunter Long 4 33 8.3 0 10 Hector Grijalva 6 7 1.2 0 7 AJ Acosta 5 -3 -0.6 0 5 Joel Bello 1 -7 -7.0 0 -7 RECEIVING NO. YDS AVG TD LONG Joel Bello 3 40 13.3 0 27 Diego Chavez 1 9 9.0 0 9 Spencer Grijalva 1 5 5.0 0 5
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