{"id":34583,"date":"2023-04-18T19:43:39","date_gmt":"2023-04-19T01:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/m-chs-soccer-clips-bayfield-forges-to-front\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T08:19:18","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:19:18","slug":"m-chs-soccer-clips-bayfield-forges-to-front","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/m-chs-soccer-clips-bayfield-forges-to-front\/","title":{"rendered":"M-CHS soccer clips Bayfield, forges to front"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez goalkeeper Aubrey Rutherford hits the deck and deflects away a shot taken by Bayfield's Sydney Rey during action Monday at M-CHS. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

CORTEZ \u2013 As open as the window of opportunity was for Montezuma-Cortez to take a slight lead in the 3A Southwestern League\u2019s 2023 title chase on Monday, Sophia Shepard saw it closing even faster.<\/p>\n

Having successfully threaded several through-ball passes ahead to the Panthers\u2019 forwards, only to then see visiting Bayfield\u2019s defense repel just as many potential rushes on goalkeeper McKenna Noonan, M-CHS\u2019 facilitating senior saw a golden opportunity develop in the 64th minute of what had been a tense 0-0 match at halftime.<\/p>\n

Having advanced the ball through midfield and drawing attention from multiple Wolverines, Shepard saw that the approaching defenders hadn\u2019t closed on her enough to trap teammate Jordi Mahler, not far ahead, in an illegal cherry-pick position. And with zero white uniforms remaining between Mahler and Noonan, and an immense amount of open grass in which to place a pass, Shepard knew she had to gamble.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez's
Montezuma-Cortez's Anna Jenson angles the ball away from Bayfield's Sydney Rey during action Monday at M-CHS. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Before the guests could properly react, Mahler \u2013 onsides by not much more than a stride \u2013 was alone on a run toward Noonan. The sophomore converted the chance for M-CHS in what ended up being the only score in a 1-0 victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I thought for sure that was going to be offsides. And when it wasn\u2019t a sigh of relief came over me,\u201d Shepard said. \u201cJordi and I have really built a lot of trust with each other, and we\u2019ve really worked on understanding the way we make runs, the way we pass \u2013 and just having that knowledge has really helped us make those perfect through-ball passes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSophia made a great pass to Jordi, and Jordi got the advantage of getting in front of them and then taking her time,\u201d said junior Anna Jenson. \u201cWe definitely had to calm it down so we could look for those needle-like passes, and it paid off in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Winning their fifth consecutive match, the Panthers improved to 3-0 in SWL play and 5-3 overall. BHS slipped to 3-1 in league, and 4-3 overall, setting the stage for an electric April 27 rematch inside Wolverine Country Stadium.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s definitely exciting,\u201d Jenson said. \u201cWe know they\u2019re going to be our toughest team to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cListening to each other and trusting each other is really important,\u201d Shepard said. \u201cBuilding that bond and team spirit has really helped \u2026 for difficult games such as Bayfield.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shortly after the opening whistle, it was clear the contest was up for grabs and both sides had some quality chances. Shepard nearly broke through for a fifth-minute goal, but clanged her shot off Noonan\u2019s near-side post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI definitely was like \u2018Dang it! What am I doing?\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cSo calming down and \u2026 just regrouping, rethinking \u2013 especially for myself, not getting in my head \u2013 helped keep this game going. It\u2019s important to (keep) your head on the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wolverine sophomore Sydney Rey soon volleyed a splendid chance over M-CHS goalie Aubrey Rutherford in the 13th. After Shepard zipped a 22nd-minute free kick just wide to Noonan\u2019s left from 25 yards out, Rutherford gloved a dangerous Rey shot from beyond 20 yards.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer motivation to win \u2026. She\u2019s definitely pushing us all; she can see the whole field and she\u2019s telling us where to be and stuff,\u201d said Jenson. \u201cAnd she made some great saves today that I thought were going in; that\u2019s just the hard work in practice that she\u2019s putting in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noonan, however, made an incredible doorstep denial of Montezuma-Cortez freshman Keeley Clark in the 29th to ultimately keep the match scoreless going into intermission. Later, she slid to stop senior Carlie McClellan\u2019s 48th-minute try. After Noonan disrupted another McClellan attempt in the 67th, she very nearly equalized in the 70th.<\/p>\n

Junior Genesis Barrera\u2019s high-arcing shot, however, taken from just outside the corner of M-CHS\u2019 18 and targeting Rutherford\u2019s upper back corner, unluckily curved outside the framework and out of bounds.<\/p>\n

Rutherford totaled seven saves and Noonan five, and each side earned four corner kicks.<\/p>\n

Bayfield was also bent on bouncing back from a blizzard-battered 10-2 loss at 2A Loveland Classical Academy on Friday. It\u2019s scheduled Saturday trip to Colorado Springs Thomas MacLaren School was canceled.<\/p>\n

Last season\u2019s league champion with a 5-1 mark, M-CHS will next see action Thursday at 2A Ignacio. On Friday, BHS will welcome 2A Lake County. Both matches are slated to begin at 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez's
Montezuma-Cortez's Alyssa Brittain fends off Bayfield's Genesis Barrera in a battle for possession Monday at M-CHS. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Herald)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

M-CHS gains league lead with 1-0 win over Wolverines<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34584,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,845],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-34583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-soccer"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34583","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=34583"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34583\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":82667,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34583\/revisions\/82667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34583"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=34583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}