The Mancos Blue Jays’ season came to an end on Friday in a 53-6 loss to the Norwood Mavericks.
In the first quarter, the Mavericks had two rushing touchdowns, an 81-yard kick return for a score, a stripped ball recorded as a fumble recovery returned for a touchdown and a punt returned for a touchdown after a Mancos punt bounced off one of its own players into the hands of Norwoods’ Mason Riddle, who took it to the house.
Mancos’ only score came on its first offensive possession. Facing a third-and-long, quarterback Drew Morgan rolled out to his right side.
Keeping his eyes downfield, Morgan found senior Andrew Plunkett crossing the field behind the Mavericks’ secondary and dropped a ball right into his hands. Plunkett raced the rest of the way into the end zone for an 84-yard touchdown, bringing the score to 6-8.
Then the Mavericks rattled off 26 unanswered points to end the first quarter with a 34-6 lead.
Norwood struck again on the first play of the second quarter with a 79-yard touchdown pass to Devyn Rummel, and extended the lead to 47-6 by half.
With a running clock starting in the second quarter, the rest of the game went by quickly.
Norwood found the end zone once more in the third quarter, and held Mancos scoreless in the second half to win the game, 53-6.
The Blue Jays found some success on outside runs by Morgan, when he would fake a toss to one side and reverse field and run the opposite way, but they were unable to sustain drives or find the end zone other than on Plunkett’s 84-yard reception.
“Their defensive line was big, and we couldn’t move them, so it was like a stalemate,” co-head coach Josh Gardner said after the game. “Not only that, but their linebackers were coming downhill like 100 miles per hour, and that disrupted us.”
The loss bounced the Blue Jays from the playoffs and ended their season, but Gardner said that he viewed the season as a success.
And for just the second time in the past 12 years, the Blue Jays won six games on the season, finishing with a 6-4 record.
“The senior leadership was unbelievable on this team this year,” Gardner said. “And our success is due, mostly, because of their leadership.”