{"id":108395,"date":"2015-11-05T17:36:23","date_gmt":"2015-11-06T00:36:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blue-jays-with-new-life-as-playoffs-near\/"},"modified":"2015-11-05T17:36:23","modified_gmt":"2015-11-06T00:36:23","slug":"blue-jays-with-new-life-as-playoffs-near","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/blue-jays-with-new-life-as-playoffs-near\/","title":{"rendered":"Blue Jays with new life as playoffs near"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Sophomore
Sophomore Kaleb Hargraves stretches in half-pads before practice on Monday. After suffering a broken collarbone nearly a month ago, there is a chance that Hargraves could return for the Blue Jays\u2019 playoff game on Friday.<\/span>Jardyn Angell\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Mancos Blue Jays\u2019 future was uncertain after their 80-38 loss to the Dove Creek Bulldogs on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kind of thought the season was over,\u201d said senior quarterback Drew Morgan. \u201cI got myself really emotionally prepared to have played my last game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking with the team after the game, coaches Josh Gardner and Bill Parsons didn\u2019t know if the Blue Jays\u2019 season was over, or if they would be selected to continue into the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told those guys we\u2019ve got a chance,\u201d Gardner said. \u201cBut if not, that\u2019s the way life is. But I was very proud of them for the season.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came the waiting period.<\/p>\n

Following the game on Friday, the Blue Jays could do nothing but anticipate the release of the 2015 8-man playoff bracket.<\/p>\n

And on Sunday afternoon, CHSAA announced the selections, with Mancos inked in as the 15-seed and scheduled for a first-round game against No. 2 Norwood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just kind of overwhelmed,\u201d said senior Andrew Plunkett. \u201cBecause our chances of getting in were kind of small. So just hearing that we were going to be able to redeem ourselves was pretty great.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays not only have a renewed outlook and an opportunity to continue their season, but they have a rematch against the Mavericks, whom they lost to in their season opener.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know what they\u2019re going to bring to the table,\u201d said Morgan. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve already prepared for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re just fundamentally sound,\u201d said Parsons. \u201cThey do the same things over and over because they\u2019re really good and they can block it. They can do what they want to do to beat you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re ready,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe know what they do, we\u2019ve just got to stop it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays plan for Bowen Strazza-Whalen and Richard Martinez return to the lineup, and there is a chance that sophomore Kaleb Hargraves could return after suffering a broken collarbone nearly a month ago.<\/p>\n

The Blue Jays dropped their first game against Norwood, 50-12, but they have improved as the season has gone along.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re a completely different team than when we played Norwood the first time,\u201d said Morgan. \u201cSo it should be a good game. If we play our game, we could end up beating them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

uncertainty, Mancos prepares for No. 2 Norwood<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":108396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[83],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-108395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-mancos"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108395"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=108395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}