{"id":15674,"date":"2025-11-16T01:59:26","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T08:59:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-football-falls-to-akron-in-state-quarterfinal-shootout\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:50:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:50:30","slug":"mancos-football-falls-to-akron-in-state-quarterfinal-shootout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-football-falls-to-akron-in-state-quarterfinal-shootout\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos football falls to Akron in state quarterfinal shootout"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Adam
Adam Martinez (67) of Mancos High School prays prior to playing Haxtun High School on Friday in the Colorado High School Athletics and Activities Association Class A State Finals at Thunderbowl Stadium in November. (Laura Domingue\/Special to the Durango Herald)<\/span>Laura Domingue<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

AKRON \u2013 Making the long sojourn across the state for a second consecutive weekend, the Mancos football could see a bit in their opposition that brought back memories of their memorable 2023 state title run.<\/p>\n

Much like the Bluejays, the No. 1 seed Akron Rams had been waiting their turn for the stars to align and prominent seniors to reach their peak \u2013 all while having to feel some heartache along the way. The Jays had close calls in 2021 and 2022 before their program\u2019s first 8-man title, and the Rams had their dreams dashed in last year\u2019s state final against Haxtun, only to come back even stronger this fall.<\/p>\n

One of two remaining unbeaten teams in the state field, Akron faced a test from the feisty No. 9 seeded Bluejays (7-4) on Saturday afternoon, and in their pursuit of their moment of glory, the Rams ousted Mancos in a 62-26 offensive showcase. Two passing scores and a rushing touchdown from Mancos junior quarterback Michael Resner wasn\u2019t enough to keep pace with the hosts, wrapping up Mancos\u2019 11th straight playoff appearance with a departure in the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n

Akron, meanwhile, piled up points in the first half with sophomore quarterback Kolten Randel tossing two of his four passing scores on their way to a 30-6 halftime advantage. Resner\u2019s first passing score \u2013 a 25-yarder to senior Jonah Ritter \u2013 closed the gap to 36-12 midway through the third stanza, but a pair of Akron scores thereafter meant that scores from MHS junior James Potts and Resner in the fourth quarter wouldn\u2019t be enough to dent the Rams\u2019 lead.<\/p>\n

While Akron\u2019s pursuit of a state title wouldn\u2019t be their first \u2013 they\u2019ve won six overall and three in a row from 2006-08 \u2013 it would be their first since heading into the 8-man ranks. Bluejays head coach Josh Gardner, meanwhile continues to lead the Jays on their pathway as one of the blue-blooded programs in the classification. Several seniors put on the blue-and-white helmets for the final time, including Ritter, Jacob Martin, Adam Martinez, Colten Vannest, and Miguel Derizotis \u2013 having amassed a record of 38-9 over their four-year tenure.<\/p>\n

Akron (11-0) heads to the semifinals to host No. 4 Sanford, with the winner set to meet either No. 2 Haxtun or No. 3 McClave in the 8-man title game on the day after Thanksgiving.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bluejays close out season with seventh straight appearance in the round of eight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[38,39,28,37,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores-high-school","tag-dove-creek-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15674","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=15674"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19782,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15674\/revisions\/19782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15674"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}