Trailing Olathe High School 6-0 at halftime on Oct. 17, the Montezuma-Cortez High School football team could have cracked.
Thanks to some nice running by Randy Haley and some big plays from its defense however, M-CHS came from behind to notch a gutsy 14-6 road victory.
With the win, the Panthers improved to 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the Western Slope South League. Olathe dropped to 3-5 overall and 0-4 in the Western Slope League.
Keying the M-CHS victory were 203 yards of rushing offense, two interceptions and three fumble recoveries.
Randy Haley led the Panthers offensively with 148 rushing yards and two rushing touchdowns. Victor Perez led the M-CHS defense with 18 total tackles and Noah Galyon recovered one fumble and had one interception.
Throughout the first half, the Panthers struggled offensively as Olathe stacked the box and focused its attention on stopping the Panthers running game.
“They shut our running game down in the first half,” said M-CHS head coach Casey Coulter. “We weren’t the physical team that we were during our win over Bayfield.”
After Olathe scored on its second offensive possession, both offenses remained scoreless for the remainder of the first half and M-CHS entered the locker room trailing 6-0.
“We started off slow,” said Coulter. “We were just kind of lethargic. (Olathe) had a very good game plan offensively and defensively.”
Turning things around to begin the third quarter, M-CHS running back Randy Haley scored a 64-yard rushing touchdown to tie the game, 6-6.
“Randy Haley is a special kid,” said Coulter. “The second play of the second half, he made a great cut back to the left and scored.”
Haley scored his second rushing touchdown of the game midway through the fourth quarter to put M-CHS ahead 14-6.
The M-CHS defense, aided by an interception by Randy Haley and a fumble recovery by Elijah Lansing in the Panthers end zone, then held strong to help M-CHS secure the victory.
“We’ve preached a bend, but don’t break attitude on defense and our players did a really good job of that,” said Coulter.
Now guaranteed a spot in the Class 2A playoffs, M-CHS will play against Alamosa at home on Oct. 24. With a win, the Panthers can secure at least one home playoff game.
“Our mentality is that we have to beat Alamosa,” said Coulter. “They have a quarterback who is extremely talented. If we can keep their quarterback from completing a lot of passes, we should be fine.”