Bears try to bounce back from loss

Bears try to bounce back from loss

September 6, 2001

BY JIM THOMAS
Journal Sports Editor

Dolores High School’s varsity football team will be back at it this Friday night, Sept. 7, when the Bears host Montezuma-Cortez High School’s JVs at 7 p.m. at Dolores Field.

The Bears, 0-1, are coming off a 42-26 season-opening loss last Friday, Aug. 31, to AA power Pagosa Springs at Dolores Field.

DHS led after the first quarter 7-6. Quarterback Cullen Zion had an 80-yard run the second play of the game.

But the Pirates got their offense going in the second quarter, putting up 21 points. The Bears did not score in the quarter and trailed 27-7 at the half.

DHS scored 13 points in the third quarter. Luke Ragland made a 4-yard run and Brady Blackmer caught a 30-yard pass from Zion. But PSHS put 14 points on the scoreboard that quarter.

In the final quarter, the Bears scored when Kevin Fane intercepted a pass and returned it 25 yards untouched for a score.

Zion had a good day rushing. Either calling his own number or scrambling, he rushed for 228 yards. He also was 10 of 17 passing for 185 yards. Waylon Bennett grabbed two passes for 100 yards. All total, the Bears piled 454 yards in total offense. But likewise, Pagosa also gained more than 400 yards in total offense.

Defensively, Derek Thompson was in on 13 tackles and Casey Garvin had 11. Garvin, a two-way starter coming off a thigh injury, did not play on offense.

"Pagosa Springs has a pretty good club. They’ve won their league the past two years," DHS second-year head coach Don Story remarked. "I thought we did a pretty good job, especially on offense. I saw some thing’s we’ve got to clean up by this Friday. I saw some progress in some areas and some areas where we had problems. I’m still pleased overall with our performance."

Dolores County, 1-0 and coming off a 43-0 win over Whitehorse, Utah, will host AA Bayfield at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 8, at Weber Park Field in Dove Creek.

In last week’s lopsided win over the Raiders, DCHS quarterback Keith Pierce threw for 185 yards. Dallas Coker had six catches for 100 yards and big fullback, Bru Meyer, had 75 yards in receptions and rushed for 56 more.

DCHS head coach Ken Soper said he was not very happy with the performance, despite the lopsided win, by his kids. He thought they made too many mistakes and didn’t bother to correct some even when talked about during the half. He said he’ll be looking for improvement this week in practice and during this week’s game against Bayfield.

Mancos, coming off a 48-35 win over AA Ignacio, is very much improved this season according to the Ignacio coach. He thought Mancos played very well and was surprised, especially with a new coach (Gordon Shepherd) to see that much improvement so quickly.

Things will get tough for the Blue Jays at 1 p.m. Saturday when they travel to Sargent, an annual power team from the San Luis Valley. Shepherd said he’s looking forward to seeing how well his team stacks up. Sargent is expected to make the playoffs again this year. This game will definitely be a barometer for the 1-0 Jays.

MCHS is coming off a hard-fought and disappointing 17-7 loss at home to Bloomfield, N.M. The Panthers now must regroup quickly because they travel to Farmington to take on New Mexico Class 4A runner-up Piedra Vista at 1 p.m. Saturday at Farmington Municipal Schools Stadium on the campus of Farmington High School.

In the opener against the Bobcats, Cortez finished with 72 yards net rushing and 56 passing. Of those, quarterback Kevin Wayman carried for 62. The Bobcats rushed for 183 and passed for 51. Bryan Sandoval carried for 139 yards, most of those coming in the second half.

Defensively, however, the Panthers had four takeaways but capitalized on only one of those.

"I think the defense made some big plays but we didn’t play the entire game," MCHS head coach Karl McGee said following the game. "A team with 48 kids needs to show up more than a team which shows up and play harder than a team with 30 (BHS). We did not make the plays at crucial times on both sides of the ball. We only snapped the ball, I think, 12 times in the whole second half. When you only snap it that many times you have got to make every snap count. Our offense has got to step up and take the responsibility. We have another big game this Saturday, we will have to see who steps up to play."