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October 23, 2001 By Jim Thomas It was quite a defensive struggle at times as Class A no. 8 ranked Dolores County held off unheralded Mancos 18-6 Saturday, Oct. 20, at Weber Park Field in Dove Creek. Both teams did score in the first period, though. The Bulldogs got on the scoreboard first when Trent Daves scored on an 11-yard touchdown pass from Keith Pierce with 8 minutes, 50 seconds left. The two-point pass attempt failed. A few minutes later the Blue Jays tied the game when Nick Rubino bulled his way over from the 3-yard line. MHS drove the ball 81 yards but was helped out along the way with some DCHS penalties. The kick failed. That was all the scoring the rest of the game for Mancos. The Blue Jays threatened in the second quarter but were stopped at the 4-yard line. They tried a field goal but it missed the mark. DC had marched all the way to the Mancos 6 but fumbled. Dolores County put two more scores up in the third quarter. Joe Buffington scored on a 60-yard pass play from Pierce. The kick failed. The Bulldogs scored the final time when Pierce called his own number and sneaked into the end zone from 2 yards out. That TD was set up thanks to a long pass from Pierce to Daves who caught the ball at the 2-yard line. The pass failed. Neither team scored in the fourth. The Bulldogs did get down to the Mancos 14 but could not score. Pierce had a good day passing. He threw for 232 yards on 12 of 27 attempts. Daves was on the receiving end of six of those passes for 105 yards. Dallas Coker grabbed five for 90 and Buffington two for 55. Mancos had 264 yards of total offense. "We were hurting that game," DCHS head coach Ken Soper commented. "We had our starting tailback and fullback out because of illness and injuries. We had two different defensive ends and middle linebackers. We didn’t play well the first half but I thought we played better in the second." "We had our chances," MHS head coach Gordon Shepherd commented. "We fumbled at the 7-yard line and a TD there would have put us ahead, we missed a field goal that would have put us ahead, and we missed an extra-point that would have put us ahead. We just weren’t executing and it came back and bit us in the rear." Dolores County improved to 7-1 overall and 2-1 in Class A San Juan Basin League. Mancos slipped to 3-5 overall and 0-3 in league. Mancos hosts Dolores at 7 p.m. Friday, Oct. 26, at Mancos Field. Dolores County hosts Nucla at 2 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 27, at Weber Park Field. Both the Mancos-Dolores and Dolores County-Nucla games are league games and the final regular-season games for those teams. Ignacio 47, Dolores 41 IGNACIO — The Class 2A Ignacio High School football team led the Class A no. 7 rated Bears at one point 33-6 late in the third quarter Friday night, Oct. 19, and then had to hold off a furious comeback by Dolores in the fourth quarter. "Maybe this was a wake-up call for us," DHS head coach Don Story said. "Ignacio has really improved. We came out flat. I’m just glad this was a non-conference game." Ignacio scored the first two touchdowns, one on a 25-yard run by Rodney Hocker and one on a 6-yard pass from Chris Phillips to Laramy Miller in the first quarter. Dolores managed one touchdown before the half, however, making it 12-6. That came thanks to an 80-yard run by Luke Ragland and Cullen Zion who finished the drive with a 2-yard run. Ignacio surged again early in the second half, scoring three consecutive touchdowns – one off a 6-yard run by Ben Neil, one on a 46 yard pass from Phillips to Miller and the third on a six-yard run by Hocker in the first drive of the fourth quarter – to make it 33-6. But that’s when Ignacio seemed to let up, and Dolores came back. Sean Boone got things going by picking up a fumble and taking it down field 75 yards. Zion passed for two TDs to Casey Garvin, one of 55 yards and another for 10. Duston Russell scored on a 15-yard run. Garrett Nielson scored the final TD on a 4-yard run. During the fourth quarter, Aeson Reed caught four passes for long gainers. Dolores almost had another chance to score with 1:18 left when it tried an on-side kick. But the ball went out of bounds and Ignacio held on for the non-conference win. "We just didn’t play well. The defense did nothing. The offense moved the ball, but we just didn’t show up in the first half," Story added. Offensively, DHS amassed 420 total yards. Zion picked up 193 rushing and throwing for 116 on eight of 20 attempts. Ragland ran for 100 yards. Steamboat Springs 20, Cortez 6 RIFLE — Too bad high school football games are 48 minutes instead of 24. Because for the first half, the Panthers from Montezuma-Cortez High School played a pretty solid game. But the Panthers couldn’t hold back undefeated (8-0 overall) Steamboat Springs in the second half in their Class 3A Western Slope League game played at neutral ground in Rifle. The Panthers seemed fired up after holding the Class 3A no. 6 ranked Sailors on their first possession to three downs and a punt. The Panthers took the ball on their own 33 and methodically began marching up field. Mike Rivas passed to Evans which took MCHS from the Steamboat Springs 25-yard line down to the SS13. Rivas called his own number and carried down to the 3-yard line. Devin Sena zipped into the end zone. The kick failed, but MCHS held a shocking 6-0 lead with 6 minutes, 40 seconds to play. The MCHS offensive line was opening up some big holes. The Sailors came back and got all the way down to MCHS 8-yard line mid-way in second quarter but could not score. The Panthers had an opportunity to score late in the quarter but could not get the ball into the end zone. The MCHS defense did a nice job, allowing only two first downs in the half. Meanwhile, the MCHS offense moved the ball well between the 20s. The Sailors trailed 6-0 at halftime on Saturday. But there is a reason Steamboat Springs is now 8-0 and undefeated in Western Slope League play. The Sailors have a good team. That same Steamboat team cam back in the second half and racked up 20 unanswered points. Steamboat's offensive line created the holes Pat McMahon would need in the second half, which helped pull the Sailors ahead. Steamboat came into the second half looking for answers, and it would take just two plays before the Sailors' Gaspar Perricone would recover a fumble at the 24-yard line on a fumbled exchange. When the Sailors took over possession after Perricone's recovery, it was McMahon who busted loose for a big gain to put the team in scoring position at the 6-yard line. Sailors running back Joey Marias, who finished with 125 yards rushing, capped the drive with a 2-yard run to even the score. Cory Beck tacked on the extra point to give the Sailors their first lead for good at 7-6. After holding the Panthers scoreless on the next series, Steamboat got the ball back at its own 11-yard line, setting up what was about to be the biggest play of the game. On the Sailors' first play of the drive, McMahon took a handoff, shifted through the Panthers' line and outran the Panthers' secondary for an 89-yard touchdown. The Panthers' biggest offensive threat was Kevin Wayman, who finished with 122 of the team's 164 rushing yards. He started the game at tailback but would finish at quarterback, managing just one completion for 32 yards. Steamboat's secondary had a good outing. It forced three interceptions in the game, two of which were snagged by Beck. Ray Banning had the team's other interception. The Sailors' third and final touchdown came from quarterback Tanner Barr, who jumped over the Panthers' defensive line on keeper for a 1-yard TD late in the third quarter. The Panthers, who are are 1-4 in league with no chance at post-season play, host Battle Mountain in a Western Slope League contest at 1 p.m. Saturday at Panther Field. The big WSL game of the week will be this Friday when undefeated Steamboat and undefeated Rifle square off for the league title and the top seed for post-season play. MCHS will end the regular season when it visits Moffat County at Craig on Nov. 3. |
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