{"id":25543,"date":"2024-09-28T13:47:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-28T19:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-football-flexes-muscles-against-shiprock\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:20:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:20:03","slug":"montezuma-cortez-football-flexes-muscles-against-shiprock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-football-flexes-muscles-against-shiprock\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez football flexes muscles against Shiprock"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez's
Montezuma-Cortez's Marley Linch dodges a tackle against Shiprock on Friday. (Sam Green\/Special to the Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

CORTEZ \u2013 On the basketball court, shooting 50% from the floor is an ideal efficiency rate.<\/p>\n

On the gridiron, scoring on 50% of the team\u2019s offensive snaps makes most Madden video game results seem realistic by comparison.<\/p>\n

Against the Shiprock Chieftains, the Montezuma-Cortez Panthers required fewer than 15 offensive snaps to score seven first-half touchdowns on their way to a 77-0 throttling of the visiting Chieftains.<\/p>\n

Six different Panthers scored touchdowns, while special teams added two scores. The defense recorded its third shutout of the season.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez's
Montezuma-Cortez's Tay Wheat breaks through tacklers on his way to a 44-yard touchdown against Shiprock on Friday. (Sam Green\/Special to the Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The night proved to be just what the doctor ordered for a Panthers squad anxious to get back to action after back-to-back bye weeks, all while eagerly awaiting the return of senior quarterback Colby McMillan.<\/p>\n

The veteran signal caller didn\u2019t disappoint in his return, firing three long touchdown passes, including a 42-yard bomb to senior Marley Linch midway through the second quarter.<\/p>\n

The Chietains struggled to get anything going when they had the ball, as a fumble on the first snap of the game set the tone for the night.<\/p>\n

The host Panthers scored three plays later, as Wheat broke free behind a steamrolling offensive line. Senior center Braiden Seymour, along with the collection of young Panthers gelling together up front, controlled the trenches.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez's
Montezuma-Cortez's Parker Conrad takes the ball down the field for a touchdown against Shiprock on Friday night. (Sam Green\/Special to the Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWith me and Aden (Ray) coming back as the only seniors back on the offensive line, we knew it would be a pretty tough adjustment,\u201d Seymour said. \u201cBut the freshmen are learning the position, and we\u2019ve got some other guys who have stepped up from JV \u2013 and they\u2019re doing pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers hounded Shiprock junior Elijah Shorthair, who helped Shiprock move the ball more effectively on its second drive, churning out multiple first downs. But Montezuma-Cortez snuffed out a fourth down run \u2013 and with it, most of the Shiprock forward progress on offense.<\/p>\n

Panthers senior running back Tay Wheat scored five touchdowns, including four in an opening-quarter salvo that put the Panthers up 36-0. Both Wheat and classmate Houston Hurst returned punts for touchdowns, while junior Parker Conrad capped the scoring on a short run.<\/p>\n

Junior Cooper Sopha collected one of the multiple takeaways by picking off a pass, while junior Wyatt Oliver recovered a fumble and also scored on the receiving end of a McMillan pass.<\/p>\n

Senior Brady Dale accompanied Seymour and the blocking schemes, while juniors Karston Ozment and Jasper Gilliland helped keep the pocket clean for McMillan and open lanes for Wheat.<\/p>\n

On defense, junior Rusty Snyder and the linebackers spent most of the night in the Chieftain backfield, making sure Shiprock didn\u2019t cross midfield the entire night.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s looking to help the other guys out \u2013 it\u2019s not just one guy doing their job,\u201d Seymour said.<\/p>\n

\"Marley
Marley Linch (0) celebrates in the end zone after catching a long pass for a touchdown against Shiprock on Friday night (Sam Green\/Special to the Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

First-year Panthers coach Tyler Worley echoed Seymour\u2019s sentiment, saying the offensive line is \u201cmoving as one\u201d and that each lineman is \u201csquared away on their responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole team has adjusted to our philosophy of being a run-first offense \u2013 so for us to be successful, it\u2019s a matter of each guy doing their job,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez improved to 3-1, including a 3-0 record against New Mexico foes. Shiprock dropped to 0-4.<\/p>\n

The Panthers will start Intermountain League play next weekend with a trip to Gunnison, while Shiprock will resume District 1-4A play at Wingate.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s sad sometimes coming out and thinking that this could be the last time we get to do this, but we\u2019re really excited about this being our year,\u201d Seymour said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Panthers roll past Chieftains behind efficient offense<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25544,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,1870,36,797,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-25543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-football","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-shiprock-high-school","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25543","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=25543"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25543\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78984,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25543\/revisions\/78984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25543"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}