Missouri high school football star nearly hits rushing yard milestone following surgery caused by unusual injury

A wrestling injury nearly kept Marcus Lopez-Durman from playing his senior season at Carl Junction; instead he ran for nearly 2,000 yards and set a school record

Carl Junction's Marcus Lopez-Durman (2) ran for nearly 2,000 yards this season, which came after a knee injury last year put his senior season in peril. / Joslyn Perkins

It was September 7, 2019, when the legend of Marcus Lopez-Durman began to take shape.

It was a warm, sunny Saturday morning at Bulldog Stadium as the Carl Junction 6th-grade team played its second game of the season against the Nevada 6th-grade team.

The week before, Nevada, due to wet field conditions had to move its youth home game to Carl Junction, where the Bulldogs had an open week.

There, the Carl Junction sixth-grade coaching staff had a chance to scout Nevada and record the defense.

During the week leading up to the game, the Carl Junction 6th-grade offense noticed on video, the Nevada 6th-grade defensive coach was spitting tobacco juice onto the new turf at Bulldog Stadium.

“I remember that game,” Lopez-Durman said. “That was all the motivation we needed. Nothing else needed to be said; we knew we would address it during the game.”

All Lopez-Durman did was rush for 184 yards on five carries, including three first-quarter rushing touchdowns of 55, 38 and 43 yards as Carl Junction 6th grade earned a 38-0 victory.

Rumor had it that even the Mayor of Nevada called Lopez-Durman that night, asking if he could get the keys to the city back.

Thus, the first chapter is the legend of Marcus Lopez-Durman.

Fast forward six years, Lopez-Durman, now a 5-foot-8, 200-pound senior, has played his final high school football game, now reflects back on his football career and the injury that nearly ended his senior year before it began.

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The Injury

January of this year, Lopez-Durman was in the middle of warming up for a wrestling tournament when two teammates fell on him.

“Our two heavyweights were warming up, Blake Starks and Isaac Scaletta, and they fell onto my left leg,” Lopez-Durman said. “I was checked out by the trainer, nothing felt wrong, continued to wrestle on it that day, won the tournament and finished the season, even though my knee was bothering me.”

Lopez-Durman, wrestling at 190 pounds, posted a 38-4 record, losing in the Class 3 state championship match to Carter Temple from Kearney, who ironically is the starting quarterback for the Bulldogs and has guided them to the Class 4 state semifinals this fall and a title last year. 

“When the season was over, it was March and the knee was still swollen so I talked to my mom about getting it checked out and she set everything up and the MRI results came back showing a torn lateral meniscus,” Lopez-Durman said. “They go in during the surgery and the doctor came out to talk to my mom and he said they discovered a chunk of my meniscus was missing altogether. The middle third of my meniscus was gone.

“There wasn’t much they could do to repair it because a chunk was missing.”

Lopez-Durman was told he had two options: 

• A meniscus transplant, which meant the end of his athletic career or 

• Continue to compete as much as the knee would allow and his tolerance of pain and discomfort would allow.

“My mom set up an appointment with a specialist at the University of Missouri to see what they thought and this doctor works directly with the wrestling team at Mizzou,” Lopez-Durman said. “He said he didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t play on it. I did have surgery where they went in and cleaned up some cartilage that was floating around and it was bone on bone, but they cleaned up what they could.”

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Back on the Field

Following surgery, Lopez-Durman was held out of all summer workout reps, summer camp reps and the entire first week of fall practice – not a single live rep.

He kept lifting weights and doing what he could to prepare for the season, just no carries in a live game situation.

“That was the tough part. Seeing all my friends, my teammates out there on the field, putting in the work, doing all the live reps and other guys getting the carries, it was difficult to be shut down like that,” Lopez-Durman said. “It wasn’t until the week leading up to the jamboree when I finally got some live reps, during the jamboree I got two carries and that was it.

“But after that, it was on. I told them I wanted the rock, feed me the ball and I’ll let you know if I’m hurting.”

First game of the season, Capital City at Bulldog Stadium, Lopez-Durman had his number called 28 times and he turned it into 146 yards and two touchdowns in a 35-21 victory.

The next week against Rogers Heritage, 24 carries, 145 yards, the week after at Marshfield 22 carries, 232 yards and week 4 against Logan-Rogersville, 28 more carries for 158 yards.

Through the first four games of the season, Lopez-Durman had 102 carries for 681, averaging 25 carries a game, 170 yards a game and had already scored 16 touchdowns.

Over the next three games – at Hillcrest, at Seneca and at Branson – he carried the ball 18, 14 and 18 times.

In the Hillcrest game, he wasn’t needed in the fourth quarter. Against Seneca, the top-ranked defense in Class 3, bottled him up for a season-low 54 yards and in the Branson game, trailing by two touchdowns in the fourth quarter, the script called for Mason Gilbert to throw the ball to get Carl Junction back in the game.

Over the final five games of the season, Lopez-Durman averaged 181 yards on 27 carries per game and scored 11 more touchdowns.

“It did not give me any troubles during the season. Am I surprised I didn’t injure it more? Yes. The only time it swelled up was because of scar tissue where they went in at,” Lopez-Durman said. “There were a few times where I hobbled off the field and that was because my ankle was twisted, or an ankle was rolled on tackle, but the knee was fine. It still feels fine; I feel good enough to still be playing right now.”

Lopez-Durman finished the season with 1,976 yards on 288 carries with 31 rushing touchdowns. He caught two passes for 20 yards and another touchdown to finish with 32 total scores in 2025.

“So close to 2,000 yards. That would have been nice. But the brace did its job; it helped me to 1,900 yards and almost cost that much,” Lopez-Durman said jokingly.

Against six Ozark Mountain Conference opponents – Marshfield, Logan-Rogersville, Hillcrest, Branson, Bolivar and West Plains – Lopez-Durman rushed for 1,102 yards on 134 carries and 14 touchdowns.

“I was hoping to get into the conversation for offensive player of the year in the conference,” Lopez-Durman said. “I don’t know if I did enough to earn it, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort by the offensive line.”

On Monday, the Ozark Mountain Conference released its 2025 All-Conference selections and Lopez-Durman earned Offensive Player of the Year and unanimous first-team running back.

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The Record

Lopez-Durman admitted his focus was always on winning as a team and team goals first.

“That’s always the most important thing. We talked about it from the end of last year all the way through this year, winning a district title. That was foremost,” Lopez-Durman said. “In the back of your mind, you set personal goals like rushing for 2,000 yards, or posting better numbers than the year before, but I don’t think you set a goal for breaking the school record for the most rushing yards in a game.”

November 7, 2025, district semifinals at Logan-Rogersville, Carl Junction ran 72 offensive plays; Lopez-Durman carried the ball on 46 of those snaps.

The result was 333 yards and his third five-touchdown game of the season. The 333-yard performance broke a 58-year-old record set by Joe Sandridge on Oct. 6, 1967, when he rushed for 327 yards on 26 carries in a 44-6 victory over Cassville at the original Bulldog Stadium.

Behind an offensive line featuring five starters who combined for 139 varsity starts – senior left tackle Blake Starks, senior left guard Cody Walton, junior center Aidan Lundien, senior right guard Ben Stevens, senior right tackle Gavin Beachner along with tight ends senior Parker Dodds and freshman Kage Stewart with sophomore H-back Ryken Williams and sophomore all-purpose back Tadem Jones – nine guys blocking for a back who came 24 yards short of 2,000.

“Having looked back on it now, it makes me wonder what the difference was from my junior year (when he rushed for 1,260 yards on 241 carries and 12 touchdowns) to this year,” Lopez-Durman said. “It makes me wonder what I could have done if my knee had been 100 percent instead of 85 percent.

“I’m still pretty proud of what we accomplished as a team, but it does make you wonder, could I have made a few longer runs if it wasn’t for the brace? Could I have been faster without the brace? Could I have played both ways and helped on defense?”

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The Future

Lopez-Durman finished his career at Carl Junction with 4,046 yards on 680 carries with 46 rushing touchdowns. He totaled 19 games over 100 yards rushing, five games with over 200 yards rushing, one 300-yard game and 10 games with multiple touchdowns.

Now, he has transitioned into wrestling season and looks forward to competing at 190 pounds this season and to another shot at a state title.

“I haven’t heard from any college coaches. I’m flying under the radar big time,” Lopez-Durman said. “I might end up walking on somewhere, but I really would like an opportunity to play college football somewhere.

“I wouldn’t rule out wrestling at college, but I hope I haven’t played my last snap of football. I’d like to get one more chance to suit up and step on the field. I’m exploring my options and perhaps an opportunity will present itself somewhere, but football is definitely my number one.”