{"id":43538,"date":"2021-11-27T03:53:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-27T03:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-comes-up-short-in-colorado-title-game\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:14:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:14:02","slug":"mancos-comes-up-short-in-colorado-title-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-comes-up-short-in-colorado-title-game\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos comes up short in Colorado title game"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Mancos
Mancos running back Chase Moore stiff arms a Haxtun defender on Friday in the 8-man state championship game in Pueblo. Haxtun, however, won the game 40-0. (Wendy Collison\/Special to the Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Mancos High School football team played in its first state title game Friday at the ThunderBowl in Pueblo.<\/p>\n

The No. 2 Bluejays, however, were unable to take down No. 1 Haxtun in Colorado\u2019 eight-man championship.<\/p>\n

Haxtun\u2019s Fightin\u2019 Bulldogs beat Mancos 40-0 to claim its eighth state title on the gridiron. It was the ninth straight year a team from the A-8 Plains League, which includes Sedgwick County, has won the eight-man championship.<\/p>\n

The loss ends Mancos\u2019 season with an 11-1 overall record in which the Bluejays won almost as many playoff games this year as they had in all of their previous years. Haxtun finishes its year a perfect 13-0. Only two teams held the Bulldogs to under 40 points this season; Haxtun scored over 50 points in seven of its games.<\/p>\n

Haxtun was the dominant team again on Friday.<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs scored on their first five possessions of the game, converting on four fourth downs to keep their drives alive and eventually reach the end zone. They led 34-0 at halftime and added a touchdown at the 6:04 mark in the third quarter to enact the running clock mercy rule.<\/p>\n

It was the fifth consecutive eight-man title game in which the running clock was enacted.<\/p>\n

\"Mancos
Mancos senior Chase Moore drives for some yardage during the CHSAA state 8-Man championship game on Friday. The game was held at CSU Pueblo\u2019s ThunderBowl. (Photo by Wendy Collison\/Special to the Journal)<\/span>Wendy Collison\/Special to The Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mancos
Mancos senior Chase Moore drives for yardage during the CHSAA state eight-man championship game between the Mancos Bluejays and the Haxtun Bulldogs on Friday at the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl. Photo by Wendy Collison\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Wendy Collison\/Special to The Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Mancos
Mancos senior Chase Moore drives for yardage during the CHSAA state A-8-Man championship game was played between the Mancos Bluejays and the Haxtun Bulldogs on Friday, November 26, 2021 at the CSU Pueblo ThunderBowl. Photo by Wendy Collison\/Special to The Journal<\/span>Wendy Collison\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mancos, meanwhile, was held scoreless in the first half for the first time all season. The Bluejays nearly reached midfield on their first drive, but could not convert on a fourth-and-1.<\/p>\n

Haxtun took over inside Bluejay territory. Mancos stopped the Bulldogs for three plays, but Haxtun faked a handoff on fourth-and-4, and quarterback Owen Knode picked up 19 yards. After Mancos\u2019 Chase Moore made a tackle for no gain on first-and-goal, Haxtun\u2019s 223-pound running back, Isaac Anderson, scored on a 5-yard run.<\/p>\n

Moore had a 13-yard run to help Mancos reach midfield again on its next drive, but the team eventually had to punt.<\/p>\n

With Anderson and Michael Gerk taking turns running the ball, Haxtun put together an 80-yard scoring drive, which included two fourth-down conversions. Gerk scored from 3 yards out to put Haxtun up 14-0 with 11:26 remaining in the half.<\/p>\n

Mancos\u2019 next drive ended with an interception. On the ensuing first down, Haxtun scored on a 38-yard touchdown pass from Knode to Kyle Fryrear. Knode then converted on a 2-point conversion, putting Haxtun up 22-0.<\/p>\n

Moore returned the ensuing kickoff 31 yards, but Mancos eventually turned the ball over on downs at mid-field.<\/p>\n

Seven plays later, Anderson scored on a 3-yard run. Haxtun missed the 2-point conversion, but led 28-0.<\/p>\n

With only one first down at that point, Mancos went to the air. It\u2019s next two possessions, however, ended with interceptions.<\/p>\n

Ozzy Coss, a 245-pound tight end who also runs the ball, scored on a 1-yard run to give Haxtun a 34-0 lead at the break.<\/p>\n

To start the second half, Mancos recovered an onside kick at their own 49. A holding penalty, however, wiped out some positive runs, and the Bluejays were forced to punt.<\/p>\n

Mancos had some good coverage and a tackle for a loss on Haxtun\u2019s next possession. The Bulldogs once again, however, converted on a fourth down to keep their drive alive, and Knode eventually threw a 22-yard touchdown pass to Fryrear to enact the running clock halfway through the third quarter.<\/p>\n

Mancos picked up a pair of first downs on its final possession, including a 17-yard run from a Moore, but a holding penalty forced them into a second-and-25 and MHS eventually turned the ball over on downs.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

8-man championship despite historic effort by Bluejays<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43538","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=43538"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85744,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43538\/revisions\/85744"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43538"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}