Durango holds off Clark’s secret weapon, two outages for win

Clinging to a five-point lead in the fourth quarter, Clark’s football team went to its main weapon — the double handoff.

The Chargers had already used it to score surprising touchdowns against Durango, including runs of 59, 64 and 23 yards.

This time, though, the Trailblazers were ready.

A pair of Durango defensive linemen hit the Chargers’ Chris Jackson in the backfield and the Trailblazers took over the game.

Julio Mora and Donovan Smith scored back-to-back touchdowns within three minutes and No. 9 Durango (3-1, 2-0 Southwest) hung on for a wild 28-24 home victory Thursday night that featured a bit of everything, including a pair of power outages that delayed the game 40 minutes.

“The outages were not part of the game plan,” Durango coach Gary Maki said with a laugh after the game. “We just didn’t have our heads in the game, and Clark brought their A-game.”

The Trailblazers also suffered through eight false-start penalities.

“One thing is for sure: we will drill and drill them about the false starts,” Maki added. “That will not happen again.”

Derrick West, who led Clark (0-3, 0-2 Southwest) with 189 yards on the ground, opened the scoring with a 6-yard run at the 11:15 mark of the second quarter. Mora responded with a 2-yard TD and Antonio Becerra’s extra point gave Durango a 7-6 lead. Becerra then nailed the first of his two field goals from 38 yards to give the Trailblazers a four-point lead.

West found the end zone again, this time from 64 yards away, and the Chargers took a 12-10 halftime lead.

Becerra hit a 31-yard field goal following the first power outage to give Durango a 13-12 advantage. Following the second delay, Jackson scored on an eight-yard run, and Clark regained the lead, 18-13, before Durango’s running back tandem put the Trailblazers back in control.

Clark cut the deficit to four on Greg McKinney’s 5-yard touchdown run, but Durango cradled the ensuing onside kick and ran out the clock.