Colusa on historical run

There was a time this year when Bob Miller looked at his sideline and saw that he had 14 viable players, leading the veteran coach to make jokes about switching to 8-man football.

No time for comic relief anymore, though. A team once defined by attrition is now two games away from a Northern Section Division III title.

Tonight Miller's sixth seeded Colusa high football team will make the short trip South to take on No. 2 Durham (7-3) for a slot in the championship.

It's quite a triumph for a program that erased a decade long playoff drought this year despite losing myriad players due to health and academic issues.

But the level-headed Miller, a local coaching veteran in his second season at Colusa (7-4), has been cautioning his players not to get too enamored with their success — though he admits just reaching the first round of the postseason was the team's goal.

"They convey it to me," Miller said of his players talking about being the team to end the half a generation playoff lapse. "But we're here and that's what matters. What was done in the past makes no difference right now."

In order to earn the opportunity to play the day before Thanksgiving, the Redskins will have to work in earnest to repel the Trojans' passing attack, which Miller said has the potential to give his Redskins fits.

"That's our downfall, we struggle on pass defense in the secondary and (Durham) does a good job of pass blocking," Miller said.

Durham has the Sacramento Valley League's best passer in Nelson Fishback, a junior who has thrown for 941 yards.

Though he want's his defense to play up, Miller is also hoping the rain that is forecasted to fall through the majority of the afternoon carries into the evening and hampers the Trojans' aerial attack.

"I'm hoping for rain, monsoon and hurricane weather," Miller said.

Regardless of the climate, the Redskins' offense will use the same strategy it has employed most of the year — give the ball to Carlos Gutierrez. Though playing in pain through the season, the senior ran for a Mid-Valley league high 1,186 yards.