Douglas County whipped Aurora Central, 27-6 on Nov. 3 at Douglas County Stadium, and had many followers whispering “wait until next year.”
The Huskies finished the season with a 5-5 overall record and 3-2 in the Mount Antero League. The five wins matched Douglas County’s combined total of five victories over the 2014 and 2015 seasons.
“I do feel our program is starting to turn that corner and get there,” coach Gene Hill said. “We put in that new offense and we got better and better as the year went along. Our defense was lights out all year.
“I truly believe we’re on our way up and it’s good to see the guys across the street (Castle View) doing the same thing and get Castle Rock football back on the map. It should be fun the next couple years.”
Key moments
Douglas County put together two 80-yard touchdown drives with its veer offense on the first two possessions to take a 13-0 lead. Douglas County actually lost a fumble at the Aurora Central 2-yard line on the Huskies’ third possession and the Trojans returned the fumble 98 yards for their lone touchdown of the game.
Key players/statistics
Senior Aaron Kim rushed for 211 yards on 15 carries and had touchdown runs of 14, 65, 24 and 2 yards. He also stopped an Aurora Central threat late in the first half with an interception, which was his sixth of the season, giving him the most in the Mount Antero League.
“It was the last game of the season and I just tried to give everything I had out of the field,” said Kim, who rushed for 232 yards in previous games when he was primarily a safety.
Douglas County rushed for 405 yards, with 5-foot-6, 240-pound senior fullback Curtis Edwards gaining 54 yards on 14 carries. Sophomore quarterback Kenneth Saunders gained 63 yards on seven carries and completed on of the two passes he threw for 10 yards, and that completion was to Kim.
Senior linebacker Jacob Archuleta was credited with 15 total tackles.
They said it
“Starting 0-3, we rebounded and our senior class stepped up,” Hill said. “As coaches, we took a deep breather, and the character of the group I can’t say enough about it. We are losing only three seniors on offense and we have six defensive starters returning.”
Douglas County averaged 251.4 yards per game rushing in five Mount Antero League games.
“We want to control the football and we feel the strength of our team is with our offensive line,” Hill said. “We feel by running our veer game we can get things going and control the clock and put enough points on (the scoreboard) to win the game. We had to grow up a little and learn.”
Kim and Archuleta believe the program is heading in the forward direction.
“I feel like we stepped it up a lot this last season,” Kim said. “It’s just been great. This program is going places the next few seasons.”
“We improved a lot,” Archuleta said. “We started to figure out what to do. We hadn’t won a lot of games so a lot of my teammates didn’t know how it felt to win. Once we got things in shape and rolling it was a lot easier to get that momentum.”
Going forward
Douglas County will be watching the state playoffs but will be looking ahead to next season. The Huskies’ last winning season was in 2013 with a 7-4 record and over the past eight campaigns, Douglas County has gone 31-49.