Durango outmuscles Desert Pines; Palo Verde rallies to win wild one

Spencer Patterson

Monday, Sept. 24, 2001 | 9:23 a.m.

The final night of nonconference play saw the area's top two-ranked teams fighting to remain unbeaten, with drastically different results.

No. 2 Desert Pines, ranked behind only defending state champion McQueen when Friday night began, got dominated at the line of scrimmage by a bigger, more physical Durango team, falling to the No. 6 Trailblazers 41-23 on the road.

"We got on top of it and wore them down," said Durango coach John Mausbach, whose club improved to 4-0.

Meanwhile No. 4 Palo Verde, which had outscored its three previous opponents 98-33, fell behind by 18 points at halftime before rallying for a wild 31-28 victory over unranked Rancho at home.

"I've been doing this for 18 years and it's probably the best comeback I've been associated with," Panthers coach Darwin Rost said. "The kids showed a lot of character. They found a way to win."

Despite the absence of Durango tailback Corey McCants (hip injury), the Jaguars (3-1) had no answer for the Blazers' running game, surrendering 244 yards and four touchdowns to McCants' backup, junior Ahmad Atkins.

After the game, Atkins' praised an offensive line that opened up "great, big holes. I got through there, and I could see the whole field. I just tried to hit it hard and score."

Desert Pines' running back Cornell Johnson managed 100 yards and two touchdowns on 18 tough carries against a hard-hitting Durango defense. But Jaguars quarterback Darrell Byrd struggled for the second straight game, passing for only 54 yards.

Palo Verde (4-0) spent the first half chasing Rams' quarterback D.J. Porter, who ran for two touchdowns and passed for another to help Rancho build a stunning 25-7 lead.

The second half belonged to the Panthers, who delighted their homecoming crowd by tying the score in the final quarter and winning the contest on Ryan Worthen's 18-yard field goal with 12 seconds remaining.

"It seemed like we were watching (Porter), waiting for him to make a move in the first half," Rost said. "In the second half, we got more aggressive. We went to him instead of letting him come to us."

Along with Palo Verde and Durango, No. 9 Chaparral remained unbeaten with a 24-20 win over visiting Mojave. For the second straight week, Grady Thomas was the hero for the Cowboys, this time running a kick back 99 yards for what would prove to be the game's decisive score.

No. 5 Las Vegas also remained red-hot, getting a whopping eight touchdowns from Antione White to rout winless Basic 67-36. Likewise, Foothill's John Ford continued his torrid early season scoring pace, torching Cheyenne for four touchdowns in a 36-13 Falcons' victory.

Unranked Bishop Gorman came out on top of a wild shootout against Bloomington (Calif .), finally prevailing 60-54 on Quintin Jones' 10-yard score in overtime.

"Bloomington was a great opponent -- big and physical, but we hung in there," Gaels coach Kevin Kent said.

After dropping just one regular season contest over the past two seasons, Cimarron-Memorial fell to 1-3 after a lopsided 38-13 loss at Rancho Bernardo (Calif.). In 2000, the Spartans downed the Broncos 17-14 in Las Vegas to remain unbeaten.

Also on Friday night, The Meadows cruised past Canada's Seaquam Secondary 48-8 to extend its string of consecutive wins to 33, three short of the state record set by Wooster from 1985-87.