Colusa advances on missed extra point

As his quarterback ran backwards, ensuring the final seconds would tick off the clock in Colusa's 28-27 win Friday night, Colusa coach Bob Miller clandestinely emptied all of the water out of the coolers.

He knew the bath was coming. His team had just clinched a spot in the section championship game.

Thanks to another stellar performance from Carlos Gutierrez, a shifty 38-yard touchdown run from Darren Smith and a heartbreaking moment for any fan of Durham High, the Redskins sneaked past the Spartans on a frigid night in south Butte County to clinch a spot in the Northern Section Division III finals.

On Wednesday, the sixth-seeded Redskins will travel to Weaverville to face No.1 Trinity, which dispatched Live Oak 33-6.

"I've got a headache right now, I could go over there and shake that goalpost," said Miller jokingly about how his team narrowly missed having to go to overtime.

With Colusa leading 28-21, Durham used the ever-solid legs of running back Frankie Deluca to carry a 27-yard gut-check to the Redskins with a minute left in the game. But the Spartans' extra point attempt was low and to the right.

"We flat got lucky," Miller said. "No matter if it's your opponent, you have to feel sorry for a kid like that."

While the special team's miscue gave the Redskins the chance to run out the clock after Hayden Meyers recovered the onside kick attempt, there would have been no celebration on the sidelines if not for the play of Gutierrez and Smith.

Playing with a hurt ankle that kept him out of a pair of games, Gutierrez rumbled for 162 yards and two touchdowns, including a 75-yard scorcher of a run on Colusa's second play from scrimmage.

After the Spartans played excellent coverage on the opening kickoff and held Vicente Gutierrez to a yard, Carlos took the handoff, saw the defense was shifting to the left and instead broke through the middle to send his teammates into frenzy.

"The defense looked messed up and I put it into fourth gear and booked it," he said.

With the score tied, Colusa moved ahead for good when Smith took a sweeping handoff to the right-hand side and made a host of Durham players wish for a second chance at trying to tackle him as he straddled the sideline en route to the touchdown.

For Durham, the style was more of the clock-eating variety. After Gutierrez scored his touchdown 51 seconds into the game, Durham responded with an 80-yard drive that was punctured by the first of Deluca's four touchdowns.

Using a mixture of misdirection plays that gave the Redskins defense fits, the Spartans would add another 80-yard drive that would take all but 10 seconds out of the first quarter. Durham would take a 21-14 lead into halftime after finally deciding to use its pass game to set up a Deluca 1-yard run.

"That's been our problem all year, we score on big plays and don't eat up the clock," Miller said.

Not that Miller or anyone else who cheers for Redskins minds. After a 10-year playoff drought, the veteran coach, in his second season with the program, and a host of players who have overcome injuries are one game away from history.

"This is a blast," Meyers said. "Hopefully we will be one of those teams (future Colusa) teams look up to."