By Jim Thomas
Journal Sports Editor

FARMINGTON — If there is such a thing as a moral victory, the Panthers then certainly had one against a very good Farmington High School team on Tuesday, Sept. 12, at Hermosa Middle School Field.

Montezuma-Cortez lost 4-0 to a veteran team that is ranked no. 6 among Class 4A schools in New Mexico.

"I guess I sound like a broken record," MCHS head coach Todd Starr said following the game. "I tell the kids they are doing a good job. Here they are again going up against eight seniors and eight juniors with our mainly freshmen and sophomores. I feel pretty good because the referee came up to me after the game, he saw our team and roster and thought we were going to get wallopped. He said that we did a better job than he had expected."

The Panthers played Farmington fairly evenly during the first few minutes of the first half. Their tenacious defense seemed to stymie the Scorpions. Cortez, meanwhile, had problems transitioning from defense to offense. With 2:56 gone, there was still no score and no team had even threatened.

Finally, Farmington’s Matt McCord, Casey Roberts, and Adam Ludwig all got shots off, but either missing the mark by a wide margins or coming up short. Cortez’ Joe Siracusan, who normally plays as a defender, worked his way up field as a rover and got off a shot with 11:41 gone in the half. Farmington, though, continued to put pressure and made shot after shot but Garrett Andrews did a good job making diving saves. But Andrews found himself in no-man’s land and Farmington’s Kyle Fraser found an open net with 19:00 gone.

Farmington scored a again at the 28-minute mark when Todd Schaver made a perfect cross-the-crease pass to Diego Ramirez who booted the ball into the net. Cortez did not get any chances to score but Farmington continued to pound balls toward’s the MCHS goal. The score stayed 2-0 at the half.

While the Scorpions attacked, Cortez continued to play farily good defense but they had trouble containing Farmington’s speedy forwards and strikers. They could never muster much of an offense. With 4:54 gone in the half, Mike Homer made an apparent breakaway goal, but a teammate was off sides. The Scorps did score when Roberts, New Mexico’s leading scorer, found the net with 10:40 gone.

The final score came when Colin Horvath scored when Andrews slipped, leaving an open net with 16:26 gone. Farmington attempted shots on goal another six more times while Cortez could not get the ball past midfield.

Starr was not happy with the lack of field change and the lack of communication on the field by his players.

"That is something we are going to work on. We also did not talk at all. Against a team like that is a powerhouse, communication becomes all that much more important. That’s another thing we will be working on," he said.

Farmington made 17 shots on goal in the first half and 14 shots in the second half. Cortez managed three shots the whole game.

"Garrett was shelshocked but he did a nice job. I know he had a ton of saves," Starr said.

Starr said that Joe Siracusan was allowed to go where they needed him most.

"I can not say enough about how well he played out there for us today. I don’t think there is enough words in a Thesaurus to say about him. I also was pleased with the play of Tyler Gilstrap and Aaron Phelps, both who actually attend Dolores High School. They both put in a good game," Starr remarked.