{"id":17002,"date":"2025-08-10T18:08:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-11T00:08:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-football-sets-sights-on-another-intermountain-title\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:03:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:03:34","slug":"panthers-football-sets-sights-on-another-intermountain-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/panthers-football-sets-sights-on-another-intermountain-title\/","title":{"rendered":"Panthers football sets sights on another Intermountain title"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Parker
Parker Conrad runs the ball for a Panthers first down after a pass from quarterback Colby Mcmillian. Sam Green\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

CORTEZ \u2013 Philadelphia head coach Nick Sirianni and his Super Bowl champion Eagles bristled at the idea of being labeled \u201cdefending\u201d champions.<\/p>\n

With a new season, shifting roster, and new expectations, the Eagles made it clear \u2013 they were entering the 2025 season in full \u201cattack\u201d mode.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez\u2019s second-year head coach, Tyler Worley, conveyed a similar message to his Panthers, right from the first day of official practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first five minutes of our first team meeting of the season was \u2018last year was last year, now we\u2019ve gotta go make it happen again,\u201d said Worley of the team\u2019s focus on a title pursuit.<\/p>\n

Optimism is high in the opening days of the season after the Panthers took down their first Intermountain League title as members of the conference this past fall. While graduation left some starting lineup vacancies, the Panthers enter the upcoming season with aspirations of making it an encore performance.<\/p>\n

M-CHS posted their second winning season in the past three years with a 7-3 mark last season, leaning on a defense that collected four shutouts and an offense that scored over 34 points six times.<\/p>\n

With a senior class nearly a dozen athletes strong, Worley is excited about what he has returning on both sides of the ball, especially with plenty of starters returning in the linebacking core and defensive secondary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a lot of our guys in the weight room during the offseason,\u201d said Worley, noting that returning all-conference athletes like senior Wyatt Oliver led the charge to get the Panthers in shape. Oliver joins classmates Rusty Snyder and Parker Conrad as part of the anchor in the middle of the M-CHS defense.<\/p>\n

M-CHS will look to fill in some of the holes on the offensive and defensive lines, with senior Jasper Gilliland, sophomore Zane Coffey, and incoming transfer Nathan Brown looking to emerge as leaders for the Panthers up front.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to scheme our offense around the skills that our team possesses \u2013 we know we can\u2019t turn around and hand the ball to (graduated senior) Tay Wheat every time anymore,\u201d said Worley, \u201cand we\u2019re confident that we\u2019ve got a lot of skill on the edges to make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conrad will take on the bulk of the carries out of the backfield, while the Panthers look to be more of an aerial attack in order to utilize their speed at the tight end and receiver positions. Seniors Isaac Dozal and Cooper Sopha looks to lead an experienced receiving core, providing junior starting quarterback Cody Case one of many options when the Panthers go to the air.<\/p>\n

\u201cCody grew a lot over the summer, he\u2019s making smart decision, and we really like his arm strength,\u201d added Worley.<\/p>\n

All told, the Panthers possess threats from every position group, and to Worley, it\u2019s just a matter of having it all come together on the field. He looks forward to seeing the continued growth from his Class of 2027 and 2028, which saw significant action last fall.<\/p>\n

M-CHS won\u2019t shy away from premier competition in the opening month of the season \u2013 after facing Crownpoint (New Mexico) on Friday, Aug. 29, to open the season at Panther Stadium, M-CHS will take on two top 10 teams in the 2A in back-to-back weeks, with a road trip to Strasburg on Sept. 6 before a home game against the state runner-up Wellington on the following Saturday. League play gets started with a Homecoming bout against Gunnison on Oct. 3, before meetings with the rest of the IML occupy the rest of October\u2019s slate \u2013 capped with a rivalry clash on Halloween at Bayfield.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M-CHS kicks off season at home on Aug. 29<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17003,"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-17002","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\/17002","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=17002"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20509,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17002\/revisions\/20509"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17002"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=17002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}