|
||||
|
November 6, 2001
By Jim Thomas One fourth of the eight teams left playing football for this weekend are from the same league in this area. Dolores and Dolores County, both members of the San Juan Basin League, have advanced to this Saturday’s, Nov. 10, Class A State Quarterfinals Playoffs. Dolores made the best of hosting its first playoff game ever by crushing South Park 35-13 Saturday afternoon, Nov. 3, at DHS Field. Dolores County played at Hayden and won easily 45-12. The Bears, 8-2 overall, will visit Lyons (6-3), a 23-6 upset winner of no. 2 ranked West Grand. The Bulldogs will host top-rated and unbeaten Akron (10-0) at Weber Park Field in Dove Creek. Both games are slated for a 1 p.m. kickoff. In other first round games, Arkon clobbered Crowley County 47-12, Sanford nipped Byers 20-19, Limon ran past Custer County 49-17, Las Animas stopped Holyoke 22-15, and Wiggins rolled over Del Norte 30-3. Sanford will visit Limon, Las Anima will be at Wiggins in the two other quarterfinal games this weekend. Although the Bears didn’t play that well in the first half, they still led 21-10 at the intermission. On their first possession, they went three downs and out. They made some mistakes and were penalized several times. But South Park made a costly mistake when safety Waylon Bennett picked off a pass and ran it back to the SP18. Cullen Zion bootlegged for nine yards to the 8-yard line. Zion then hit wideout Bennett on a slant for a touchdown. Casey Garvin kicked the point-after for a 7-0 lead with 4 minutes, 43 seconds left. But the Burros answered right back when Owen Springer broke loose, zipped to the far sideline, and ran untouched 50 yards to paydirt with 3:36 remaining in the first quarter. The Bears got the ball back and kept control of it but penalties stopped the drive. With only nine seconds gone in the second quarter, the Bears were on the scoreboard again when Duston Russell picked up a fumble and took it from about the 20. South Park had been put in bad field position at its own 4-yard line when Aeson Reed punted the ball just before the first quarter had ended. Garvin was perfect with the PAT for a 14-7 lead. The Burros came back when it settled for a 36-yard field goal when Ty Baamgardner was true. The ball sailed right through with 2:59 showing. Dolores led 21-10 when the quarter was over. "In the first half, we felt like we made too many mistakes," DHS head coach Don Story said immediately following the win. "We really kinda got on them at the half, but our seniors were already getting on them before the half ended and taking the leadership role. It wasn’t a 21-10 game at that point with us dominating, it was a good, close football game. We wanted to come out and shut them down in the second half but we didn’t do that." South Park scored with its first possession of the second half. Their drive stalled at the D25, but Baamgardner has a strong leg and booted the ball through. The ball just dropped over the cross-bar for another field goal with 6:15 on the clock. The Bears, though, came back with a touchdown. Zion made a long gainer and then he passed to Luke Ragland for pass play that covered 16 yards. Then Zion hit Bennett for a 59-yard scoring strike with 4:06 to play in the third quarter. Garvin hit the PAT for a 28-13 lead. The Burros threatened early in the fourth quarter when they drove from the D47, after getting good field position from a kickoff return, down to the D5. But the Bear defense held and the Burros turned the ball over on downs. "We definitely good play from our defense. When Russell picked that ball up and ran it in, that really gave us a lift. The kids made some big hits and we had several sacks," he noted. The Bears then kept the ball for much of the quarter,
wearing down the clock. The played very conservatively but still made a
couple clutch plays when they needed. They marched the ball for 97 yards
and scored with 2:25 remaining, putting the final nail in the coffin of
the Burros. Zion scrambled in the final nine yards and Garvin again was
true on the point-after. "That 97-yard drive did them in," Story said. "They really did a great job keeping control of the ball. This is just a great group of kids." Dolores County, meanwhile, was busy taking care of business at Hayden. The Bulldogs got on the scoreboard first when they marched down field. Quarterback Keith Pierce scrambled, but instead of throwing an interception like he did last game, and ran 40 yards for a TD. Dallas Coker kicked the PAT with 10:07 showing in the first quarter. Hayden came right back when Derek Stephenson took the ensuing kickoff and went right up the middle and then he was gone. That score came with 9:55 left. Hayden took a 12-0 lead when it scored again when Jacques Denker raced 50 yards to paydirt with 7:39 still to play. "That had a bit worried at that point," DCHS head coach Ken Soper recalled. "I wasn’t worried, but I was concerned." Dove Creek then scored the next two TDs. Pierce ran the ball in from 4 yards out with 4:59 and Pierce threw from 1 yard out to Trent Daves. The Bulldogs led 20-12 when the long quarter finally came to a close. The Bulldogs added two scores in the second quarter. Pierce called his own number and went from the 4-yard line with 4:01 on the clock. Pierce ran in from 1 yard out with 13 seconds to go. DCHS held a comfortable 32-12 advantage. "That made me feel a lot better. The kids were playing pretty well at that point," he added. Pierce scored his fifth TD of the day when he ran the over from the 2 with 4:37 to go in the third. Coke ran the ball over for the final TD of the day with 6:05 to go. Coker picked up a fumble and returned it. "We didn’t make any turnovers. Pierce scrambled when he had instead of forcing a pass and making a turnover. We stepped it defensively. I was pleased with our overall effort," he added. The Bulldogs racked up 465 yards in total offense. They had 345 rushing and 120 passing. Joe Buffington carried for 134 yards and Pierce had 113. Darin Retherford added another 52. Defensively, the Bulldogs held Hayden to 132 yards rushing (84 of those yards coming the first few plays of the game) and 92 passing. DCHS’s secondary made three interceptions. Lyle Joe led the defense with 11 tackles while James Smith had eight. MOFFAT COUNTY 38, CORTEZ 21 CRAIG — Montezuma-Cortez High School wrapped up the regular season with a loss to Moffat County in Craig on Saturday afernoon in Class 3A Western Slope League play. The Panthers, who were out of the post-season playoff picture a month ago, finished with a 2-8 record overall and were 2-5 in league play. It was a most unusual game in that the Panthers played well in the first half, but some questionable calls against MCHS in an already-hard fought and rather dirty game caused the Panthers troubles in the second half. Cortez scored two touchdowns right off the bat. Devin Sena ran 38 yards for a score with 7:55 left in the first quarter. Kevin Wayman carried over from the 3-yard line for the second score. MCHS led until about a minute left in the half and trailed 16-15. The Panthers just couldn’t contain MC quarterback Aaron Sanchez who rushed for 200 yards scored two touchdowns of 5 and 15 yards. Mike Tretalli also scored on runs of 1 and 27 yards. Late in the game, with 18 seconds left in the fourth quarter, the Panthers scored again when Chris Hooten snagged a pass from quarterback Matt Knisley. In the very physical game, Wayman left the game fairly early with an injury. Sena picked up on the rushing and finished by carrying for 113 yards. What hurt the Panthers were the more than 100 yards in penalty yards.
|
||||
|
Copyright © 2001 the Cortez
Journal. All rights reserved. |
