{"id":16631,"date":"2025-09-06T16:34:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-06T22:34:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-football-sprints-past-monticello-in-home-opener\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:00:00","slug":"dolores-football-sprints-past-monticello-in-home-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-football-sprints-past-monticello-in-home-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores football sprints past Monticello in home opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores running back Michael Rantz takes off on a 57 yard touchdown run against Monticello on Friday.
\nSam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Dolores football might have started the season under the radar, but now the secret\u2019s out.<\/p>\n

The Bears are back.<\/p>\n

Seeking their first playoff berth since 2009, Dolores delivered one of its most impressive wins in nearly a decade Friday night, routing Monticello 56-7 to improve to 2-0. After giving up a touchdown on the Buckaroos\u2019 opening drive, the Bears responded with eight touchdowns on their next nine possessions.<\/p>\n

Senior Michael Rantz led the charge, rushing for more than 200 yards and scoring four touchdowns. The defense stifled Monticello\u2019s high-powered passing game and controlled the line of scrimmage throughout.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores
Dolores quarterback River Wickstrom releases a pass Friday night against Monticello on Friday.
\nSam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

.\n<\/p>\n

\"Senior
Senior Michael Rantz and the Bears routed Monticello, 56-7, on Friday night to begin their 2025 season with a 2-0 record. (Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Down 7-0 after Cache Young\u2019s 4-yard touchdown run, Dolores answered immediately. Rantz broke loose around the right end for an 80-yard score, tying the game just 15 seconds later.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn previous seasons, you\u2019d see it in our faces, we\u2019d be down after they scored on the opening drive,\u201d Rantz said. \u201cBut this time, we got the ball back, everybody\u2019s head was right and we came right back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Second-year head coach Travis Rantz, also the team\u2019s defensive coordinator, made adjustments on Monticello\u2019s second possession, forcing a punt deep in Buckaroo territory. A botched snap led to a safety, and the Bears\u2019 momentum surged.<\/p>\n

Rantz added a 57-yard touchdown run, and Monticello began to unravel. Senior Deven Winter intercepted a pass to halt a Buckaroo threat, and on the next play, junior River Wickstrom connected with Rantz on a dump-off pass that went untouched to the end zone, extending the lead to 22-7.<\/p>\n

\"Dolores
Dolores running back Michael Rantz runs down the sideline for a 68 yard touchdown against Monticello on Friday.
\nSam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cOne of the beautiful things about the team this year is that everybody\u2019s doing their job,\u201d Rantz said.<\/p>\n

Junior Darren Hicks powered in from 10 yards out for his first of three touchdowns, followed by Rantz\u2019s fourth score \u2013 a zigzagging run through the secondary. Wickstrom\u2019s 2-yard plunge before halftime made it 42-7.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the defense kept pressure on Monticello quarterback Jackson Keyes, a 2,000-yard passer last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew that he\u2019s (Keyes) a smart quarterback who makes good decisions,\u201d Rantz said. \u201cBut we watched a lot of film \u2013 so we knew a lot of what they were wanting to do \u2013 we felt prepared and it showed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hicks opened the second half with a 56-yard touchdown run, triggering the mercy-rule running clock. He added another score to cap the night.<\/p>\n

\"Darren
Darren Hicks crosses the goal line for a Dolores touchdown against Monticello on Friday.
\nSam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Dolores
Dolores players celebrate after recovering an on-side kick Friday against Monticello on Friday.
\nSam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The offensive line \u2013 led by sophomore Daniel Jacket, sophomore Evan Elder and freshman Marshal Wickstrom \u2013 opened wide lanes as Dolores piled up more than 350 rushing yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe line was fantastic \u2013 they knew what they had to fix from last week (a 46-16 win over Justice), and they did,\u201d Rantz said.<\/p>\n

It was a celebratory night for the home crowd, with Dolores looking like a team ready to make noise in the 8-man scene.<\/p>\n

The Bears avenged last year\u2019s blowout loss to Monticello and continue their revenge tour Friday, Sept. 12, with a 7 p.m. kickoff at Rangely.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

control all three phases to the delight of large home crowd<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16632,"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-16631","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\/16631","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=16631"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20307,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16631\/revisions\/20307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16631"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}