{"id":37611,"date":"2022-10-29T03:37:54","date_gmt":"2022-10-29T09:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/delta-leaves-montezuma-cortez-football-in-playoff-limbo\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:38:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:38:51","slug":"delta-leaves-montezuma-cortez-football-in-playoff-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/delta-leaves-montezuma-cortez-football-in-playoff-limbo\/","title":{"rendered":"Delta leaves Montezuma-Cortez football in playoff limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez head coach Ivan Mack Head, shown in a file photo, prepped his team to bring the aerial attack against a stout Delta defense, but a couple of costly first-quarter turnovers snuffed out M-CHS drives. (Photo courtesy David Robinson)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez High School entered the final weekend of the regular season with plenty of uncertainty.<\/p>\n

A league title and the program\u2019s first playoff appearance in eight years hung in the balance as the Panthers traveled to Delta, the No. 2 team in the classification.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, a loss would open up a 48-hour tension-filled waiting period, as M-CHS (6-3, 2-2 2A Southwest League) would spend the rest of the weekend scoreboard-watching, hoping that their resume would be sufficient to land one of 16 spots in the 2A playoff bracket.<\/p>\n

But on Friday night, Delta (9-0, 4-0 2A Southwest League) helped to clear up the Panthers\u2019 fate. Looking every bit a state-title contender, Delta swarmed M-CHS all night in their regular season-concluding showdown, building a five-touchdown lead at halftime and closing out a 42-0 win.<\/p>\n

Head coach Ivan Mack and his coaching staff prepped his team to bring the aerial attack against a stout Delta defense. Senior quarterback Jake Blackmer showed flashes of brilliance against the Delta secondary, working the ball downfield, but a couple of costly first quarter turnovers snuffed out M-CHS drives.<\/p>\n

Delta, meanwhile, needed little help to move the ball effectively down the field, using a steady mix of run and pass, as sophomore quarterback Ty Reed lacerated Montezuma-Cortez with incisive passing to a variety of passing options.<\/p>\n

Delta moved the ball down its home field on their first drive with efficiency, capped off with Reed\u2019s 1-yard run to put Delta in front 7-0. Then, a drive later, Delta would score again, this time with Reed going through the air to find senior Clay Sandridge to double the advantage.<\/p>\n

M-CHS would cough the ball up on their ensuing possession, and Delta wasted no time in punishing the turnover with another short TD run.<\/p>\n

Reed ran in his second score of the contest early in the second quarter, then added another passing strike just before halftime to build a 35-0 lead at the intermission.<\/p>\n

A score on Delta\u2019s first possession of the third quarter pushed the game to the mercy rule, and left M-CHS to play a waiting game to see if they might earn one of the final berths into the field of 16.<\/p>\n

M-CHS now waits until the weekend\u2019s action comes to a conclusion, and the final seeding is compiled by the CHSAA selection committee to determine if, in fact, their 6-3 season will merit a spot in the bracket.<\/p>\n

Undefeated Dove Creek wins League 1<\/div>\n

Head coach Shane Baughman and the Bulldogs can officially call themselves league champs, capping their regular season 9-0, with a perfect 4-0 mark in league play, thanks to a 60-13 victory Friday night over Sargent.<\/p>\n

In doing so, Dove Creek enters the postseason sitting No. 2 in the state, and prepped to face their opening round opponent at the Soper Sports Complex this upcoming weekend.<\/p>\n

The perfect regular season marks the first time since 2008 that the Bulldogs ran the regular season table, and now the \u2018Dogs set their sights on making a deep run in the eight-man postseason.<\/p>\n

The eight-man field, with Mancos (7-2) also set to host an opening round game, will be announced this weekend, with the opening round of the postseason set to begin in the first weekend in November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

closes out league title<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37203,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[926,28,36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37611","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=37611"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83717,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37611\/revisions\/83717"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37611"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}