After suffering losses on the road last week, the Montezuma-Cortez and Dolores football teams will finish their seasons at home on Friday. Mancos wraps things up on its home turf on Saturday, and Dove Creek was forced to forfeit its final contest.
Montezuma-CortezM-CHS fell to 1-7 on the season and 0-4 in the Intermountain League after being shut out by Gunnison (4-4, 2-2 IML) last Friday in a 42-0 loss.
The Panthers defense came up with stops early in the contest, but they were negated by penalties that extended drives for Gunnison and led to touchdowns.
“When they go down and score after we have them stopped, I think that just let the steam right out of everyone,” said head coach Scott Conklin.
Offensively, without first and second string centers Tyler Case and Kale Hall, who were out with injuries, the Panthers had a difficult time with their snaps and getting the ball on target to quarterback Coby Baer.
“I think that was more or less the biggest struggle,” said Conklin. “We couldn’t get any momentum going.”
Baer connected with Tanner Desrosiers four times for 60 yards and hit his younger brother Cordell three times for 31 yards – finishing 13 of 19 for 119 yards passing with an interception – but the Panthers were unable to sustain drives and fell 42-0.
M-CHS will look to end its season with a win, hosting Pagosa Springs (1-7, 0-4 IML) on Friday at 7 p.m. on service appreciation night, where local veterans, EMS, firefighters and police will be honored.
Dolores The Dolores Bears had similar struggles against Centauri Falcons last week, falling 41-6.
After forcing Centauri (5-3, 3-1 Southern Peaks League) to punt on its opening drive, the Falcons answered with 35 unanswered points.
In the second quarter, the Bears defense would stop the Falcons in the red zone, and later Tristan Medina pulled down an interception, but Centauri went to the break up 35-0.
“The last few weeks at Center, Ignacio and Centauri, we had rough starts,” said head coach Chris Trusler. “And then our kids are kind of realizing that they can be competitive and then they play better. Really with a younger squad, it’s going to take some time and experience for these guys to gain confidence.”
And as they had in previous contests, the Bears’ play improved in the second half.
Dolores forced and recovered three consecutive fumbles in the third quarter, and its lone score came in the third on an 18-yard pass from Justin Purkat to Talon Zwicker.
But neither team put points on the board in the final frame as Centauri went on to win 41-6.
Purkat was 15 of 36 for 174 yards passing with a TD and two interceptions. He also led in rushing with 91 yards on seven carries while Skieler Grooms finished with 10 carries for 71 yards.
Medina led the Bears in receiving with eight catches for 100 yards, and Trusler said he also played tremendous defense, shutting down the Falcons top receiving threat.
Zwicker finished the contest with 14 tackles, and sophomore linebacker Forest Pejsa recorded 23 total tackles and currently leads the state of Colorado – across all classifications – with 149 tackles on the year.
He will attempt to break the Dolores school record for tackles in a season, 162, set by Lane Gallaher in 2007, as the Bears (3-5, 0-4 SPL) host Monte Vista (4-4, 3-1 SPL) in their final game of the season Friday at 7 p.m.
MancosThe Mancos Blue Jays were the lone area team to come out with a win last week, drubbing the visiting Dove Creek Bulldogs on homecoming for a 63-0 win.
Richard Martinez, Axel Bonde and Bowen Strazza-Whalen each scored rushing touchdowns for the Blue Jays, and Bonde and Kaleb Hargraves each took interceptions to the house for pick-six scores to give Mancos a 40-0 lead in the first.
In the second quarter, freshman quarterback Breccen Morelli broke off an 87-yard TD run to send the Jays to the break with a 48-0 advantage.
In the second half, Richard Martinez scored on a 68-yard end around and then senior QB Riley Burton connected with junior Nic Huver for a 34-yard score to complete the scoring for the evening as Mancos cruised to a 63-0 win.
“Mancos, Dove Creek is a pretty big rival,” said Mancos co-head coach Adam Priestley. “Being the homecoming game the kids were really excited about the win.”
“We do know and understand the misfortune Dove Creek has been going through, because a few years ago we were in the same boat of not having a lot of kids out and struggling,” he continued. “So we just tried to take care of business to stay in the hunt for the playoffs but not rub it in.”
Mancos is currently No. 18 in CHSAA’s RPI standings. And with eight league champions automatically qualifying for the 8-man state playoffs and the remaining eight teams slotted based on RPI, the Blue Jays’ final regular season contest against No. 2 ranked Sargent (CHSAA poll) will have a major impact on their postseason fate.
Mancos (5-3, 4-1 A-8 Southwest) will host the Sargent Farmers (8-0, 5-0 A-8 SW) on Saturday at 1 p.m.
“We’re sitting at 18,” said Priestley. “A win for sure gets us into the playoffs. But if we don’t have a win, we’re hoping that even with the record of Sargent it still gets us into that top 16.”
Dove CreekIt’s been a rough season for the Dove Creek Bulldogs.
After making the 8-man state quarterfinals last season, the Bulldogs lost seven players to graduation.
This year’s squad was not only young, but also battled injuries and ineligibility issues all season.
After getting blanked 63-0 by Mancos last week, the Bulldogs had only seven available players due to injury/ineligibility and forfeited their final game scheduled for Friday vs. Norwood to finish the season with a 1-8 record.
