{"id":16716,"date":"2025-08-30T16:27:24","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T16:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-football-steamrolls-crownpoint-to-open-season\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:59:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T03:59:59","slug":"panthers-football-steamrolls-crownpoint-to-open-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-football-steamrolls-crownpoint-to-open-season\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers football steamrolls Crownpoint to open season"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez High Schoolsenior Rusty Snyder sheds a Crownpoint tackle attempt on his way to the end zone in the Panthers\u2019 season-opening win at Panther Stadium on Friday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 For programs with staying power in high school football, the old saying goes, \u201cthey don\u2019t rebuild, they reload.\u201d<\/p>\n

Add Montezuma-Cortez to that list of programs.<\/p>\n

Friday night\u2019s season opener against Crownpoint showcased both the present and the future of Panthers football as M-CHS cruised to a 48-0 win over the Eagles. While their defense of the Intermountain League title won\u2019t officially begin until early October, M-CHS validated the early season buzz around Panther Stadium that another special season is in the making.<\/p>\n

Six of the Panthers\u2019 seven touchdowns came from their senior class, with do-everything tailback, defensive safety and punt returner Parker Conrad accounting for three of those scores. He bookended the first half with a 64-yard dash to open the scoring before striking on a 50-yard punt return to cap off a dominant first half with M-CHS in front, 35-0.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez High School senior Parker Conrad uses a block from classmate Cooper Sopha to get to the edge on his way for a big gain in the Panthers\u2019 season-opening win at Panther Stadium on Friday night. Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Conrad tallied more than 100 yards rushing and added an interception to his performance before handing the baton to the Panthers\u2019 second unit for much of the second half. Classmate Rusty Snyder added two scores of his own, including a 7-yard reception from junior quarterback Cody Case for the first of two passing scores for M-CHS Friday night.<\/p>\n

Snyder also shared an interception with classmate Cooper Sopha \u2013 the duo combined for one of the four interceptions for the M-CHS secondary as M-CHS blanked Crownpoint for the second straight year. Senior Kallan Wirth tallied another takeaway, while junior Jude Overton snuffed out the only Eagles threat with an interception.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It made for a three-phase victory for second-year head coach Tyler Worley and the Panthers \u2013 with domination from the offense, defense and special teams lifting the homestanding Panthers to their third home-opening victory in the past five years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019ve got good kids, it goes a long way,\u201d said Worley. \u201cWe\u2019ve been building the kids up through our camps and summer programs \u2013 if they believe in each other, they can do some great things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the many storylines for Panthers fans to watch this upcoming season was clear Friday night \u2013 the Class of 2028 is something special. The starting defensive line in the Panthers\u2019 3-4 defense included three sophomores: Zebulun LeBlanc, Nathan Brown and team captain Zane Coffey, who took charge from the opening snap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to see those sophomores grow,\u201d said Worley. \u201cThey\u2019ve stepped into some big roles on this team, and they\u2019re just going to keep getting better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their efforts made life difficult for the Eagles\u2019 run-first offense, opening gaps for the linebackers to roam freely in the Crownpoint backfield, limiting the Eagles to just two first downs before the game entered the running-clock mercy rule phase.<\/p>\n

Fellow sophomore Kendrick MacPherson scored the first of two second-half touchdowns, while senior Wyatt Oliver caught two long completions from Case, the second of which found the end zone to solidify the final score.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked how involved everyone was on the sideline,\u201d said Worley, as the Panthers were able to see virtually everyone who dressed in a varsity uniform get playing time. \u201cAnd I\u2019m appreciative of that depth on both sides of the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

The difficulty level amps up over the next two weekends for M-CHS, as the Panthers travel to Class 2A top-10 opponent Strasburg on Saturday, Sept. 6, at 11 a.m., before returning home to face state runner-up Wellington on Sept. 13 at 11 a.m. at Panther Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe that we can compete with these teams from up north,\u201d said Worley of the tough road ahead. \u201cAnd we want our guys to know that we\u2019re part of an elite conference, too, and they can play with the top dogs in our classification.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

loom over the next two weeks as new M-CHS core takes the helm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16717,"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-16716","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\/16716","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=16716"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20803,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16716\/revisions\/20803"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16716"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=16716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}