{"id":38465,"date":"2022-09-08T18:59:48","date_gmt":"2022-09-09T00:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/m-chs-soccer-leans-on-seniors-in-league-chase\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:44:33","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:44:33","slug":"m-chs-soccer-leans-on-seniors-in-league-chase","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/m-chs-soccer-leans-on-seniors-in-league-chase\/","title":{"rendered":"M-CHS soccer leans on seniors in league chase"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Rickie
Rickie McDonald of Montezuma-Cortez heads the ball Saturday against Rifle. Rifle beat the Panthers 5-0. (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

For the past several years, Montezuma-Cortez boys soccer has proven to be a menace late in the season as the Panthers overcame early setbacks and developed on-field chemistry.<\/p>\n

New coach Juan Soto hopes that a group of six seniors \u2013 four of whom saw significant action in 2021 \u2013 will expedite the Panthers learning curve as they head into 3A Southwest League play.<\/p>\n

\"A
A Montezuma-Cortez player controls the ball with his head Saturday, Sept. 2, against Rifle. (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A
A Montezuma-Cortez player leaps over the Rifle keeper Saturday, Sept. 2, while charging toward the goal. (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Myles
Myles Larrick clears the ball away from the Panthers goal Saturday, Sept. 2. (Sam Green\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

M-CHS (0-2) opened the campaign with a pair of losses to Bloomfield and Rifle but looks to shift the momentum as league play gets underway on Friday, Sept. 9, with a trip to Pagosa Springs. In their early season tests, the Panthers showed flashes of brilliance, and will look to extend those stretches of quality play over the course of a full 80-minute contest.<\/p>\n

Senior Evan Lamunyon sits atop the Panther formation, serving as the team\u2019s leading returner in terms of both goal-scoring and assists. It took the fleet-footed senior less than 20 minutes to collect his first goal of the season in the 5-2 loss to Bloomfield \u2013 a contest in which the Panthers led for the better part of the first half.<\/p>\n

Classmate Gabriel Crowley anchors a midfield looking to spring Lamunyon and the forwards on the attack, while Isaak Lewis brings a steadying influence at center halfback for the Panther defense.<\/p>\n

Class of 2023\u2019s Rickie McDonald, who saw plenty of minutes in a 3-11 campaign from 2021, joins Gadiel Gonzales and Max Howell in the mix of Panthers looking to make an impact this fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis group is full of great personalities,\u201d said Soto of his leadership, \u201cand they\u2019ve been motivating our younger players to develop both on and off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

That youth movement includes a cluster of underclassmen, many of whom have cut their teeth in the opening matches this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey all bring different skill sets and techniques,\u201d added Soto, \u201cand that will help them challenge each other to keep improving.\u201d<\/p>\n

A coaching staff that includes Colin Larrick and Bryce Tanner bring their coaching expertise to a program that has been on the cusp of a league title for the past five years.<\/p>\n

The Panthers dropped their league opener against Pagosa Springs 7-0 on Friday, Sept. 9.<\/p>\n

After a Sept. 13 road trip to Kirtland Central, the Panthers play a pivotal back-to-back series against Alamosa and Pagosa Springs on Sept. 23 and 24, while a pair of matches against rival Bayfield await in October. M-CHS will face Telluride on the road over homecoming weekend on Oct. 1, before celebrating Senior Day at home against Grand Junction Central on Friday, Oct. 7.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First-year head coach Juan Soto inherits strong leadership<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38466,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,36,29,845,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-38465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38465","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=38465"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84031,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38465\/revisions\/84031"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38465"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=38465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}