Dolores wins San Juan Basin League

Dolores wins San Juan Basin League

Oct. 30, 2001

BY JIM THOMAS
Journal Sports Editor

After a fast-and-furious scoring barrage in the first half, Dolores had to hold off a charging Mancos team to take a 28-19 Class A San Juan Basin League football game at Mancos Field Friday night, Oct. 26. Dolores won the league championship after posting a perfect 4-0 loop mark and a 7-2 overall record. The Bears will host South Park at 1 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3, at DHS Field in the first round of the post-season playoffs.

"We Dan Reeves-it in the second half, we got too conservative," DHS head coach Don Story said following the game. "They (Blue Jays) had good field position for much of the half."

But it was the first half offensive performance which got the team moving to their title run.

"(Assistant Scott Story) He called a nice game. We got four touchdowns and we should have gotten another but it was called back. But we’ll take it, this was a big road win. We played so flat the week before but we didn’t play that way tonight," he added.

The Bears scored right off the bad after capitalizing on a fumble punt return by Mancos. The Bears were stymied and went three and out but a Blue Jay returner lost the ball and a Dolores player pounced on it. On the next play, quarterback Cullen Zion passed to a wide open Waylon Bennett which covered 33 yards. Casey Garvin booted the point-after for a 7-0 lead with 10 minutes, 24 seconds showing.

The Jays could do little with the ball and punted. The Bears, starting at their own 31, marched methodically down field. Zion bootlegged several times for long gains. Facing a third down and 10 to go, Zion found Aeson Reed through the seams which was good for 11 yards and first down. Four plays later, Dolores scored when Zion pased to Reed for 34 yards with 4:51 to go. Garvin kicked the PAT for a 14-0 score.

Mancos finally got itself together offensively. After getting good field position following a kickoff return, the Jays took the ball from their own 36 and marched into the end zone. The biggest play came when quarterback Kelley Smith hit Jakob Tallent over the middle for 25 yards and a first down at the D20. Two plays later, Smith found Nick Rubino for 17 yards and a TD. Travis Clark kicked the PAT with 1:28 still remaining in the first quarter.

Dolores got the ball back but couldn’t score as the time expired. However, it completed the drive when it scored from the 11-yard line. Again Zion hit Bennett, this time from the M11 with 10:53 on the clock. The kick was wide but DHS led 20-7.

Mancos got the bal back and marched down to the D24 where the drive stalled. Clark attempted a field goal but it was short.

The Bears played ball control with a subsequent long drive. It did not score. Mancos could not take advantage of a short punt and it punted only four plays later. The Bears worked the ball back down and scored with 54 seconds left. This time Garrett Nielson took the ball over from the 3. Bennett passed to Nielson for the conversion and a 28-7 lead at the half.

Dolores would not score in the second half. On its first possession of the second half, the Blue Jays took the ball on their own 25 and went all the way down to the D9 before turning the ball over on downs. Dolores played conservatively by trying anything fancy. They used a lot of dive plays and a few counters but that was it. The Bears punted short. Mancos got the ball back on its own 43 and marched down into the Red Zone but the drive stalled at the D16 following two incomplete passes.

Dolores fumbled and Mancos recovered at the D21. This time the Blue Jays took advantage of the gift. They scored from the D5 when Tallent made a reverse with 23 seconds left. The kick was blocked. Dolores still led 28-13.

The Bears did little with the ball early in the fourth. Mancos got it on its own 30. Scott Koppenhafer broke through the line and then ran untouched the rest of the way to paydirt with 11:52 showing. The pass attempt failed but Dolores led 28-19.

Mid-way through the quarter, the Bears missed a golden opportunity to score when they fumbled the ball at the M4. Mancos, two plays later, fumbled the ball right back. Dolores didn’t move the ball much and punted. The Jays ran out of downs and time.

DOVE CREEK 8, NUCLA 0

Dolores County advanced to the Class A playoffs by stopping 2000 state champ and San Juan Basin League champ Nucla on Saturday afternoon at Weber Park Field in Dove Creek. The Bulldogs improved to 8-1 overall and became the no. 2 seed to the playoffs. They will play at Hayden at 1 p.m. this Saturday, Nov. 3, in the first round.

It took all the way into the fourth quarter before any team would score. The Bulldogs finally got on the scoreboard when Joe Buffington broke loose and scored from 24 yards out. The two-point conversion effort failed. However, a few minutes later the Bulldogs made up for it by making a safety with a sack of the Nucla quarterback.

Buffington finished the day carrying for 81 yards while Darin Retherford chalked up another 33. But Nucla held DCHS to a total of 118 yards rushing. Dallas Coker caught six passes for 68 yards and Casey Spitzer grabbed two for 24. DCHS quarterback Keith Pierce completed nine of 18 attempts for 92 yards.

CORTEZ 17,

BATTLE MOUNTAIN 7

With only one game left in the regular season (at Moffat County in Craig at 1 p.m. Saturday), the Panthers already have improved 200 percent from a year ago. Although a 2-7 overall record is nothing to write home about, it is better than not winning a game at all after last season.

Montezuma-Cortez High School won its second game of the season on Saturday afternoon at Panther Stadium with a Class 3A Western Slope League win over the Huskies.

Cortez rode the legs of runningback Kevin Wayman as he rushed for 180 yards. He was unstoppable most of the day, reeling off many long gainers.

In fact, it was Wayman who scored the Panther’s first touchdown of the day early in the second quarter. The Panthers had gotten good field position at the Battle Mountain 48-yard line following a good punt return by Richard Yake. After Devin Sena carried the ball up five yards, it was Wayman’s turn. He ran up the middle, sidestepped several tacklers and shook off another, and then outraced the opposition with 10 minutes, 58 seconds on the clock. But the point-after kick failed so Cortez trailed Battle Mountain 7-6.

The Huskies had scored early in the first quarter following a questionable decision to go for a first down on a fourth down and 4-yards to go play at the Panther’s own 32. Cortez was stopped short of the first down and turned the ball over on downs. Battle Mountain’s quarterback Alberto Baltazar was sacked back to the P37. The Huskies were soon facing a fourth down situation and the punting unit came on field. A roughing the kicker call was made on MCHS which gave the Huskies an automatic first down at the P20. They worked the ball up to the P9 when Baltazar called his own number and bootlegged into the end zone with 7:40 showing. The kick was good.

Both teams had some opportunities to score more points in the first half but both made mistakes. A long interception return by BM’s Isaac Martinez down to the P14. However, two sacks in a row by the MCHS defense, stopped them. The Huskies tried a field goal but it was way wide of the mark.

It wasn’t until the fourth quarter when MCHS managed to score another touchdown. Wayman carried into the end zone from the 4-yard line. Later in the game, Colin Tansey booted a 27-yard field goal for to clinch the victory.

What has got to have MCHS coaches pleased was not only the play of the offensive unit, but the defense was well. The Panthers accounted for 11 sacks on the day. The Panther offense made 15 first downs.