It is Homecoming Week for the Yuma High School football team, and the Outlaws sure could use a home win.
They host Wiggins on Friday at 7 p.m., sitting at 3-2 overall after a 32-14 home loss to Burlington last Friday. They are 0-1 in the North Central Conference, but still No. 7 in the CHSAA 1A Selection & Seeding Index.
Yuma started out 3-0 but have lost their last two games, both at home, by a combined 68-21. Burlington is 5-0 and No. 2 in the 1A Index, while the first loss came against Brush, which is now 5-0 and No. 3 in the 2A Index.
“The thing about it is, if we do make the playoffs, we are going to be battle tested,” coach Kelly Seward said.
Wiggins comes to town 0-1 in the NCC just like Yuma after losing 49-14 at home to No. 3 Limon last Friday. Burlington, Limon and Wray have the early lead in the league race as Wray opened North Central play last Saturday afternoon with a 40-8 home win over Holyoke.
Besides Wiggins visiting Yuma, the other NCC games this week are Wray at Burlington on Friday, and Limon traveling to Holyoke on Saturday afternoon. Wray is No. 8 in the 1A Index, Wiggins No. 17 and Holyoke No. 23.
Wiggins is 1-4, but the Tigers’ losses besides to Limon have come against 1A No. 5 Forge Christian, No. 6 Highland, and 2A No. 2 Strasburg. Their one win is against 1A No. 12 Meeker.
“I think they have the toughest strength of schedule in 1A,” Seward said. “They’re like us, they’re very young and they’re finding their footing, but they’re doing a good job.”
The Outlaws will be looking to get the ground game going again. They had three players rush for more than 100 yards and a fourth gain 72 while racking up 462 rushing yards three weeks ago at Torrington, Wyoming.
However, they have rushed for a combined 119 yards in their last two games, 44 against Brush and 75 last Friday against Burlington.
“They threw a lot at us,” Seward said of Burlington. “They blitzed three all the time. We thought we were prepared for it but obviously we weren’t…you have to complete some passes to loosen up the run game.”
Quarterback Iann Duran ran for 72 yards and touchdown last Friday. Christian Thomson had eight yards, but the negative yardage led to a net 75 yards.
The Outlaws again were forced to go to the air, with Duran completing seven of 22 pass attempts for 87 yards, one touchdown and one interception. Reyli Trejo had four catches for 71 yards and a touchdown, Thomson two for 10 yards and David Covarrubias one for six. That is 163 total yards of offense.
Meanwhile, Burlington rolled up 359 yards, all on the ground, including Scout Humrich running for 158 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, and Jason Saucedo 139 yards on 16 carries. Anthony Estrada added 58 yards and two touchdowns on 13 carries. Burlington also converted all four of its 2-point conversion attempts, all on runs.
The only scoring in the first half came courtesy of Burlington on a 1-yard plunge and 2-point conversion with one second left in the first quarter.
Yuma threatened early in the second, driving the Cougars’ 21-yard line. However, the drive went backwards after that ending with an incompletion on fourth down. The teams traded punts after that with Burlington leading 8-0 at halftime.
The Outlaws got to the Cougars’ 40-yard line on a desperate 26-yard completion early in the fourth, but had to punt.
Burlington then ran a fake punt on its next possession, setting up another touchdown and 2-point conversion. After another Yuma punt, the Cougars rode a 43-yard run to another short touchdown and 2-point run for a 24-0 lead at the end of the third quarter.
A desperate Yuma team responded with a 28-yard TD pass from Duran to Trejo, and Duran ran in the 2-point conversion to pull within 24-8 with 7 minutes, 46 seconds left.
The Outlaws struck again on its next drive with Duran’s 1-yard plunge to pull within 24-14.
However, Burlington punched in another score and 2-point conversion with 42 seconds left. It was the second game in a row in which the opposition could have kneeled to run out the clock, but chose instead to cushion the final margin.
Defensively, Marvin Duarte was in on 11 total tackles, Trejo eight, Jose Mario Ross six, Jesus Gordo six, Brodie Kallweit five, Giovanni Segura five, David Gaytan three, Paulo Trujillo three, Covarrubias two, Daden Beauprez two, Stevie Seward two, Ethan Nadow two, and Bryan Montes one.