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Sept. 12, 2000 BY JIM THOMAS For most of the first half Friday night, Sept. 8, Mancos dominated Class A no. 10 ranked Sargent at Mancos Stadium. But unfortunately, a football game has a second half and that’s where the Farmers came back strong. Sargent defeated the Blue Jays 30-14 in a non-conference game that was really much closer than the score indicated.
The Blue Jays came out fired up and played with intensity. Although the Blue Jays went out in four plays during their first offensive possession, Sargent was completely stopped on its possession. Mancos didn’t do much with its next possession but neither did the Farmers. Then with the ball on their own 15, Jeremiah Muniz went up the middle and then down the far side line, zipping past defenders for a touchdown with 5:22 showing on the clock. Scott Hallam booted the point-after for a 7-0 lead. The Farmers were shocked and started making mistakes. Wingback Nick Rubino intercepted a pass, giving the Jays the ball at the Sargent 37-yard line. Three plays later, quarterback Kelley Smith found an open Rubino who got loose across the middle and scored with 2:53 to go. Hallam connected on the PAT for a 14-0 lead. They coughed up the football twice with fumbles late in the quarter, but the Blue Jays could not convert them into points. Early in the second quarter, the Farmers fumbled the ball again at their own 7. After Muniz moved the ball forward to the S4, Smith tossed to tight end Jakob Tallent for an apparent touchdown. But a holding call negated the TD. Two plays later, the Jays could not move the ball. Hallam got ready to try a field goal but a bad snap ended that. The Farmers took over on their own 20 and marched 80 yards to paydirt. The momentum pendulum swung to the Farmers. Some 13 plays later, runningback Chance Parsons went up the middle from 6 yards out for the TD. The kick was wide. Mancos held a 14-6 lead with 1:15 left in the half. Nothing went right for the Jays during their next possession and they went backward instead of forward on the field. The halftime score remained 14-6. "The first half we played our hearts out," Mancos head coach Terry Newlin said following the game. "We were more physical than they were. We had a lot of intensity and fire. We just played an excellent first half." Sargent came out of the lockers fired up for the start of the third quarter. The Farmers, starting on their own 39, tested the Blue Jay’s right side and picked up several yards on long gains by Parsons. At the 22, Ty Hemmerling came out of nowhere off a slant and scored with 10:08 on the clock. The pass failed. Mancos held a slim 14-12 lead. The Jays, following a good kickoff return by Muniz from the 4 to the 36, were in good field position. But they could only move the ball forward to midfield. They were called for a couple penalties during that short drive. A punt was blocked and Sargent had good field position at the M34. The Farmers drove the ball down to the 1-yard line where quarterback Tyler Mitchell sneaked the ball in with 5:57 left. The pass was intercepted. Sargent led 18-14. Mancos continued to make mistakes on the field, getting whistled for a variety of calls. The score remained 18-14 when the quarter ended. The Jays began the final period at their own 2. They ended up punting the ball away and the Farmers had excellent field position at the 26. The Jays’ defense stiffened but a controversial defensive pass interference gave the Farmers new life at the M4. After several tries, finally fullback Nate Gibson bulled his way over from the 2 with 3:43 remaining. The PAT failed but Sargent was now up 24-14. Mancos got the ball back but continued to make small mental mistakes. An interception gave the ball to Sargent at the M9. Mitchell passed to Gibson coming out of the backfield with 2:30 showing. The kick failed but Sargent led 30-14. Mancos got a couple more opportunities but could not score. "The second half we came out flat and we did not play well at all. I think at the end we just ran out of gas. And then we killed ourselves with penalties. That was the big thing that I was disappointed about. We had two of their drives stopped and then let them get away on penalties. "We certainly played a lot better than we did a week ago (a 39-6 loss to Ignacio). We just have to keep going," he said. It should be noted Mancos was without the services of starting senior fullback Phillip Wilson, who should be back in the lineup this week. Muniz, incidentally, finished with 120 yards rushing. The Jays, 0-2, visit Del Norte for a 1:30 p.m. kickoff on Saturday, Sept. 16. PIEDRA VISTA 63, Sometimes a big loss is easy to forget. New Mexico Class 4A no. 6 ranked Piedra Vista (Farmington) scored almost at will in the second half Friday night in a game that was actually close at the half. Josh Lee took the opening kickoff and raced 89 yards for a touchdown. Josh Knapp scored a TD. But Piedra Vista came back with a pair of TDs and led 21-13 at the intermission. Piedra Vista was led by Brent Peterson who scored four touchdowns and rushed for 160 yards. Jason McClelland and Noah Wood each rushed for more than 100 yards each for P.V. which finished with some 500 yards in total offense. PVHS’s defense created four turnovers, including two pass interceptions and two fumble recoveries. The Panthers, 0-2, travel to face rival Durango, 2-0, at 1 p.m. Saturday. MONTICELLO 35, It seems like when a team gets inside the Red Zone (inside the 20-yard line), the players tend to tighten up. Dolores marched its way down inside the 15, including missing two sneaks from the 1, and did not score. Three of those missed opportunities came in the first half alone. The Buckeroos led 14-0 at the half. "I think that was really my fault and not the kids," Dolores head coach Don Story said. "Our execution just was not there and we weren’t prepared enough. But that’s something we will work on during practice this week get corrected. Had we scored those, it would have been a respectible score." Offensively, Story cited the play of quarterback Cullen Zion and wideout Justin Schmitt. Zion connected on 10 of 26 passes for 140 yards and Schmitt caught most of those for nearly 100 yards. He also reported that linebacker Casey Garvin made nine tackles and sack. Story said that Derek Thompson, Aeson Reed, and Brady Blackmer all played well on defense. The Bears, 0-2, will finally play a home game when they entertain Shiprock, N.M., a 45-6 winner of Monument Valley (Utah) last Friday night thanks mainly to the rushing of Marcus Benally who carried for 188 yards and scored six TDs. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. Friday night, Sept. 15. DOVE CREEK 21, BAYFIELD — Dolores County escaped Friday night with a nonconference win over Bayfield. With 6:23 remaining in the Fourth Quarter, runningback Dallas Daves dived in from the 5-yard line and Chris Kail booted the extra point which gave the Bulldogs the lead for good. Bayfield threatened and was stopped by a pass interception by wide receiver Terence Gardner. The Wolverines took the opening kickoff and marched all the way down field for a 6-0 lead. Jay Miller scored from 1-yard out. The Bulldogs, though, came right back and tied the game when Daves carried in from the 5. Bayfield went ahead 14-6 in the second quarter when Kelly Greer ran in from 11 out and the pass conversion was good. That’s the way the score remained the intermission. The Bulldogs rallied and scored to open the third. Kail caught a 5-yard pass from quarterback Keith Pierce who also threw the conversion to Gardner for a tie at 14-all. Bayfield came back and scored a few minutes later on a 9-yard run by Miller. The kick failed, but Bayfield was up 20-14. That’s when the Bulldogs made a nice drive for the eventual winning TD. "Bayfield has a good team," head coach Ken Soper said. "This was a real good test for us, but we did not do a very good job stopping the run." The Wolverines racked up 236 rushing but was limited to 30 passing for 266 in total offense. Dove Creek rushed for 55 and passed for 143. Pierce connected on 15 of 23 pass attempts. Soper was pleased that his team did not make any turnovers. Bayfield committed three, including a fumble and two pass interceptions. Kyle Krafka’s interception off a screen, was good for a 25-yard return and helped set up the winning drive. Daves led the defense with 17 tackles, Gardner had 13, and Bru Meyer, Krafka, and Joe Buffington had 11 each. The Bulldogs, 2-0, host Ignacio at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 16. |
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