{"id":37702,"date":"2022-10-24T00:25:40","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T06:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bluejays-sweep-sanford-football-volleyball-doubleheader\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:39:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:39:15","slug":"bluejays-sweep-sanford-football-volleyball-doubleheader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/bluejays-sweep-sanford-football-volleyball-doubleheader\/","title":{"rendered":"Bluejays sweep Sanford football-volleyball doubleheader"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Levi
Levi Martin returns the opening kickoff of the second half 80-yards for a Mancos touchdown to tie the game at 20-20.(Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

While separated by nearly 200 miles, Sanford and Mancos have developed an intense rivalry in recent years.<\/p>\n

The Bluejays and Mustangs have made annual meetings on the gridiron and hardwood as headlining events on the schedule, and the competition has strengthened both athletic programs.<\/p>\n

Mancos and Sanford initiated an interesting scheduling arrangement to add an extra level to their rivalry \u2013 for a second consecutive year, the Bluejays and Mustangs agreed to play a volleyball match on the same day as their league encounter on the football field.<\/p>\n

So, the Bluejays volleyball team, sitting squarely in the projected 2A postseason field, prepped to take on the top 10 Mustangs a few hours before the Bluejays would duel the Mustangs under the Friday night lights. A contingent of blue-and-white would be able to support both programs, while allowing the football players to support the volleyball team, before the Jays\u2019 netters would be able to return the favor a couple hours later.<\/p>\n

The arrangement turned out to be profitable for Mancos, as the Bluejays volleyball team collected an upset win over a Sanford program that entered the week ranked in the CHSAA coaches poll. Then, to cap off the road trip for Mancos, the Bluejays football team held on for a 22-20 win over Sanford.<\/p>\n

Mancos (14-5, 8-3 2A\/1A San Juan Basin League) toppled the Mustangs (14-6, 6-1 2A Southern Peaks) for a second consecutive year in their volleyball\/football doubleheader, taking the match 3-1. The victory over Sanford ensured Mancos its first winning season since 2014, as head coach Brianna Yeomans-Allison and her Jays have visions of a postseason run in their future.<\/p>\n

The Bluejays turned around the following day and swept past Center, 3-0, thanks to the continued steady hitting of a young Bluejays front line. The Jays are hitting .181 this year, one of their best marks on the attack in the past decade.<\/p>\n

Shortly after Mancos dispatched the Mustangs on the court, Mancos football took to the field in their final regular season outing \u2013 hoping to secure their seventh win and second-place in the 8-Man League 1.<\/p>\n

Head coach Josh Gardner\u2019s group brought early intensity against a motivated Mustangs squad, forcing a safety in the early minutes, before senior quarterback Ayden Mathews provided the game\u2019s first touchdown on a short TD rush to help the Jays build a 10-0 edge.<\/p>\n

The Mustangs (5-3, 1-2 League 1) answered with touchdowns in the second and third quarters to seize the lead, 12-10, but Mancos (7-2, 3-1 League 1) turned the tables early in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Mathews found Broc Imel for a touchdown strike to restore the lead, and after the defense stuffed the Mustangs, junior Levi Martin returned the ensuing punt for a score to give the Jays their largest lead of the night, 22-12.<\/p>\n

A late Mustangs touchdown wasn\u2019t enough, and Mancos improved to 4-0 in their past two seasons of Mancos vs. Sanford volleyball and football contests, while the football team has won seven of their past nine meetings with their league foes.<\/p>\n

Mancos football will await their assignment in the eight-man state tournament bracket, which will be released after regular season action concludes next weekend. The Jays appear poised to host an opening round contest, as they sit No. 3 in the most recent CHSAA Seeding Index.<\/p>\n

The Jays\u2019 volleyball team preps for one more weekend of regular season play, with a trio of matches in Colorado Springs on Saturday, Oct. 29 to help gear the Jays up for an all-but-assured spot in the 2A regional field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Volleyball and football teams win back-to-back contests<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37446,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[926,28,37,29,346,345],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-37702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-sports","tag-volleyball"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37702","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=37702"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37702\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":83753,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37702\/revisions\/83753"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37702"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=37702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}