{"id":15826,"date":"2025-11-05T01:49:49","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T08:49:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wolverines-football-loses-finale-to-panthers-41-12\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T21:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:52:10","slug":"wolverines-football-loses-finale-to-panthers-41-12","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wolverines-football-loses-finale-to-panthers-41-12\/","title":{"rendered":"Wolverines football loses finale to Panthers, 41-12"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Bayfield's
Bayfield's Tyler Harriman (6) fights to get away from a Montezuma-Cortez defender Friday night during the teams' season finale inside Wolverine Country Stadium. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Even with senior Keegan Johnston, lost late in the first quarter to a possible concussion, back on the sideline after halftime in full pads and willing to rejoin the fray, Bayfield\u2019s drive to play for their injured quarterback wasn\u2019t going so well.<\/p>\n

The drive was a microcosm for the game as Montezuma-Cortez cruised to a 41-12 victory.<\/p>\n

Winding down the 2025 season Friday night at home against Montezuma-Cortez, the Wolverines had lost senior Kaiden Witte with 0:59 left in the second quarter when, blitzing in from the right-handed Witte\u2019s blind side, M-CHS senior Wyatt Oliver flattened Witte for a nine-yard loss and in need of medical aid to be helped off Wolverine Country Stadium\u2019s grass.<\/p>\n

Having seen Witte taken off on a stretcher, both teams knelt and prayed for his \u2013 and the remaining players\u2019 \u2013 health, and after a pause of more than 10 minutes, BHS head coach Jason Wenzlau looked to Harrison Williams to direct the offense. But the versatile sophomore struggled, as one would expect an emergency backup QB to do, and closed out the half going 1-for-5 passing and throwing incomplete to senior Estevan Gonzales as time expired.<\/p>\n

Trailing the Panthers 20-3 as intermission began, Bayfield somehow forced a four-play turnover-on-downs when M-CHS junior quarterback Cody Case threw incomplete to senior Cooper Sopha.<\/p>\n

Set up at their own 33 with 10:14 left in the third, the Wolverines quickly gained 29 yards via three carries by senior Tyler Harriman and, aided by penalties against M-CHS for face-masking and pass-interference, eventually reached the Panthers\u2019 16 before Williams, hesitant under pressure, tossed up an underhand throw easily intercepted by M-CHS senior Rusty Snyder at the 11 with 5:26 left.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez's
Montezuma-Cortez's defense made yards hard to gain offensively for Bayfield during the teams' season finale Friday night inside Wolverine Country Stadium. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

About two minutes later Montezuma-Cortez was in the end zone after senior Parker Conrad caught a Case throw to the right flat and then legged out an 85-yard touchdown paralleling BHS\u2019 sideline. Making matters worse, Harriman was ejected for misconduct after the play, and Case easily carried the two-point conversion in \u2013 putting the Panthers up 28-3 and leaving the Wolverines needing anything to rekindle hope.<\/p>\n

Gonzales answered the call almost immediately; receiving M-CHS\u2019 kickoff at Bayfield\u2019s 5, Gonzales gained speed right in front of the visitors\u2019 bench, spun out of a tackle without really slowing, and completed an electric 95-yard return. Casillas\u2019 point-after kick was good, and the Wolverines were back to 28-10 with 3:03 still left in the third.<\/p>\n

Oliver then smothered Casillas\u2019 short kickoff into empty space, setting the Panthers up at their own 30. After another taking another five-yard penalty, Montezuma-Cortez quickly regained all the momentum with Conrad broke loose for a 75-yard TD run with 2:47 to go. Case\u2019s conversion carry was stopped short, but M-CHS\u2019 34-10 lead would ultimately prove too great.<\/p>\n

Senior Justin Westbrook then covered M-CHS\u2019 kickoff, giving Bayfield possession at M-CHS\u2019 40 with 7:51 left. Two snaps later, however, Williams was intercepted and the Panthers took over at their own 41 with 6:49 to go. Overcoming a holding penalty, Montezuma-Cortez covered the 59 yards in six plays, and Case hit Snyder for a 23-yard score. The point-after kick was good, rebuilding the lead to 41-12.<\/p>\n

Case & Co. were then able to run out the final 2:15, but after a 23-yard Conrad carry to M-CHS\u2019 48, Wenzlau made sure all his remaining and serviceable seniors were on the field for the last 56 seconds.<\/p>\n

Bayfield finished its season 3-6 overall and 0-5 in the 2A Intermountain League. Montezuma-Cortez finished its season 5-4 overall and 3-2 in the 2A Intermountain League.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Turnovers, injuries doom Bayfield at home<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[731,1871,926,1870,642,36,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-15826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield","tag-bayfield-high-school","tag-football","tag-high-school-football","tag-high-school-sports","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15826","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=15826"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19862,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15826\/revisions\/19862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15826"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=15826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}