During the past four years, the senior members of this year’s Montezuma-Cortez High School football team spent countless hours in the weight room and on the practice field and stuck together through thick and thin.
Thus, emotions were running high when the Panthers raced onto their home field for the final time this season on Oct. 18 for a matchup against Salida High School, which has been one of the top teams in the Intermountain League this season.
Although M-CHS’s defense played well for much of the contest and players left everything they had on the field, the home team’s effort was not enough, as Salida bludgeoned its way to a 35-0 victory.
Salida senior Vince Deleo ran for 151 yards and two touchdowns for Salida, while Swedish foreign exchange student Ludvig Myren ran for 122 yards and one score.
“(High school football) has just been one hell of a ride,” M-CHS senior Swayde Noyes said. “You just have to go out there and play and leave it all out on the field. If I’m not stumbling off this field, I didn’t play.”
Among the bright spots for M-CHS during the lopsided loss was the play of the team’s defense, which recovered two fumbles and came through with two interceptions against one of the top offenses in the Intermountain League.
The first of the turnovers forced by the Panthers came on Salida’s second offensive possession of the game when several players ripped the ball out of the hands of a Salida ball carrier and junior Jacob Schuster picked up the loose ball and sped down the field.
Sophomore defensive back Jayden Karo forced Salida’s second turnover of the game midway through the second quarter when he stepped in front of a pass by David Zwingers, and Panthers’ senior Zeke Vargas also made an interception when he leapt up from his defensive end position and picked off an attempted screen pass.
“Everybody sold out and we came together,” said Vargas, as he fought back tears after the game. “We had each other’s backs through all of it.”
As hard as M-CHS played, however, Salida’s hard-hitting style and disciplined running game proved to be too much to overcome as the Spartans jumped out to a 14-0 1st quarter lead after a 10-yard touchdown reception by Chad Kroschel and a 73-yard touchdown run by Myren.
Salida scored its third touchdown of the game with 4:47 left in the 3rd quarter when Zwingers raced into the end zone from 12 yards out. The Spartans then scored two touchdowns in the 4th quarter to put the game away.
Although M-CHS struggled to protect senior quarterback Ike Dennison throughout its loss and yielded sacks on four consecutive pass attempts midway through the second quarter, the senior quarterback still managed to complete 9 of 17 passes for 39 yards.
Senior receiver Vinny Conklin closed out his high school career with six catches for 28 yards, and stalwart senior linebacker Matthew Broughton led the Panthers’ defense with 14 total tackles in his final high school game.
“I’ll always remember the brotherhood that we have,” senior Kale Hall said. “A lot of our team, we’ve been playing together for more than four years. In life, a football game won’t matter. What matters is the brotherhood that comes out of playing and knowing that we will be there for each other.”
With its final loss, M-CHS finishes its season with a 3-5 record overall and a 1-3 record in the Intermountain League. Among the high points of the Panthers’ season were a road victory over Alamosa and a come-from-behind road victory against Kirtland Central.
“We kept together and we kept on grinding no matter what,” senior Kerwin Tom said.