Durango holds off Roosevelt for Class 3A state championship

Durango’s top two playmakers, <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="22656" first="Jordan" last="Woolverton"]</strong> and <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="50575" first="Ben" last="Finneseth"]</strong>, each had some big plays and shined for the Demons. A third star had a huge game Saturday afternoon and was instrumental in getting Durango its first state championship since winning a share of the title in 1954. <strong>Gage Mestas</strong> was named the MVP of the state championship game and Durango was able to keep Roosevelt off the scoreboard in the second half to win 21-14 in a battle of the top-two seeds in Class 3A. Mestas had his big game start with a fourth-down catch for 23 yards on a corner rout that saw him get wide open for the first score of the game midway through the first quarter. https://twitter.com/ajw_sports/status/1335329991928721408 The second quarter was controlled mostly by Roosevelt with some stops and then a big touchdown grab from <strong>[player_tooltip player_id="22771" first="Tucker" last="Peterson"]</strong>, who made an adjustment on the go rout to tie the game. Roosevelt then attempted an onside kick and recovered it, then had a big play where <strong>Xavier Ramirez</strong> caught the screen pass and then ran down the field for a 33-yard score to give them a 14-7 lead late in the first half. Durango seemed poised to run the ball and go into the half after allowing back-to-back scores, but Finneseth had other ideas when he took a handoff up the middle and broke free for a 56-yard run to the end zone that tied the game going into the halftime break. The biggest sequence of the game came in the third quarter when Woolverton jumped in the air to intercept a pass and came down with a foot inbounds for an interception. A few players later, he threw the ball deep to Mestas as he went streaking down the middle of the field and beat his defender for a score of 67 yards to retake the lead. From that point, it was both defenses that stood tall. <strong>Demetrius Trujillo</strong> had an interception for Durango on a fourth-down pass that halted a Roosevelt drive, but <strong>Jayden Botterill</strong> got them the ball back with his own pick for Roosevelt. Quarterback <strong>Brig Hartson</strong> kept airing the ball out for the Rough Riders and was putting together some drives to try and tie the game, but the Durango defense held tough thanks to Mestas, who recorded a key interception in the red zone and then had a pass breakup on the final defensive drive of the game that helped seal the win. https://twitter.com/ajw_sports/status/1335353727830564864 Highlights from the game can been seen on the CHSAA YouTube page <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hj2lW041wlQ">here</a>.