{"id":43890,"date":"2021-11-06T23:37:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-06T23:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-powers-past-fowler-in-playoff-opener\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:16:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:16:22","slug":"mancos-powers-past-fowler-in-playoff-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-powers-past-fowler-in-playoff-opener\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos powers past Fowler in playoff opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Chase
Chase Moore takes off on a 45-yard touchdown run in this file photo. The Bluejays senior will be the focal point of every opponent\u2019s preparation.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The year 2019 feels like a long time ago. However, to some of those suited up in blue and white Saturday afternoon, a visit from Fowler brought back vivid memories. It was in the state quarterfinals two seasons ago when the Grizzlies ruined Mancos\u2019 dream of their first-ever state semifinal appearance with a 34-28 win in Mancos.<\/p>\n

The Jays made sure that script didn\u2019t repeat itself.<\/p>\n

No. 2 Mancos (8-0, 3-0 Mountain League) blitzed the No. 15-seeded Grizzlies from the opening possession, and scored on eight of their 11 offensive sequences to pick up an emphatic 59-12 victory over Fowler in their eight-man playoff opener.<\/p>\n

After stuffing the Grizzlies on the game\u2019s opening drive, Mancos took over, and drove down to the Fowler 41-yard line. Facing a fourth-and-11, the Jays turned to the air for the first time all game, with junior QB Ayden Mathews connecting with sophomore Chris Medina for 13 yards and a first down.<\/p>\n

Two plays later, senior Chase Moore took a direct snap, and followed a convoy of blockers around the left end to punch in the game\u2019s first points.<\/p>\n

After forcing Fowler into a turnover on downs, Mancos got the football back in Grizzly territory, and began a familiar churning offense to push the ball inside the red zone. This time, Mathews called his own number from the 1-yard line, bullying across the goal line to give Mancos a two-touchdown lead.<\/p>\n

Still not conceding a first down, Mancos\u2019 defense, led by a monster game from senior defensive end Mason Goodwin, forced another turnover on downs, as Fowler sophomore quarterback Gage Gottbehuet found himself under duress all afternoon.<\/p>\n

Just a couple plays after the change of possession, Moore broke to the second level again, this time from 31 yards away, and the Jays went up 24-0 early in the second quarter.<\/p>\n

Sophomore Kail Wayman intercepted Gottbehuet on the ensuing Fowler possession, but Mancos gave it back with a fumble of their own.<\/p>\n

Unfazed, however, by the change of events, the Mancos defense continued to pummel the Grizzlies, with senior Michael Velasquez and freshman Kaiden Likes joining sophomore Cole Dainty-Guilfoyle to dominate the battle in the trenches and limit a potent Fowler ground game. The resultant turnover-on-downs \u2013 the third forced by Mancos in the contest \u2013 gave the Jays premium field position again.<\/p>\n

It wouldn\u2019t be long before Moore would find the end zone again, on a drive highlighted by connections between Mathews and Medina to set Mancos up in the red zone. Moore\u2019s score made it a 31-0 margin.<\/p>\n

Assistant coach Alan Mathews, at the helm in the absence of head coach Josh Gardner, commended his team\u2019s ability to utilize different weapons to move the football down the field.<\/p>\n

\u201cChris (Medina) had a great game,\u201d said assistant coach Alan Mathews. \u201cHe\u2019s had a great season all season on defense, so he really stepped up and did a lot of good things on offense, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moore would add one more score before the break, this time from eight yards out in the final minute before halftime, to balloon the lead to 38-0.<\/p>\n

Starting the second half, Fowler (6-4, 5-2 Arkansas Valley) showed some fight, taking a Mancos fumble and scoring their first TD of the contest on a Gottbehuet 1-yard plunge early in the third quarter.<\/p>\n

However, Mancos responded with an emphatic two-minute drive, punishing Fowler down the field before Moore broke free from 23 yards out, breaking several tackles in the process.<\/p>\n

The wild scoring-fest continued, as Fowler launched a 90-yard score from Gottbehuet to senior Bradley Roe, but Mancos answered on their first play from scrimmage \u2013 51 yards from Moore \u2013 to finally push the game to running clock at 52-12.<\/p>\n

Wayman would add the final points of the day, running in from 17 yards out with most of the reserves seeing action for the Jays.<\/p>\n

As the Jays begin to face less familiar opposition, Mathews emphasized how much Mancos leans on their own preparation to handle the new rigors of the postseason.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s how we approach each week,\u201d said Mathews of his team\u2019s steady approach for their postseason opener. \u201cWe do things that we\u2019re familiar with, regardless of our opponent.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for another big day on the ground, Mathews was quick to credit his offensive line, led by seniors Andres Moreno and Luika Cova, along with junior Lane Greenlee, for opening holes for Moore and company to exploit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a selfless group has been in the system since they were young,\u201d said Mathews, \u201cand Coach Gardner has really developed them to have an understanding of what they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mancos will move on to the quarterfinals to take on No. 7 seed Dayspring Christian, who picked up an opening round victory, 58-30, over Merino. The Eagles finished second in the Eight Man Plains League behind top-seeded Haxtun, and boast one of the best dual threat quarterbacks in any classification, behind senior Garrett Krehbiel\u2019s 1,000 yards rushing and 750 yards passing.<\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s playoff opening weekend was an impressive one for the Eight Man Mountain League, as all three playoff representatives picked up wins, with Dove Creek dismantling Crowley County, 50-0, while Sanford knocked out six-time defending state champion Sedgwick County, 36-18.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moore\u2019s six TDs pace Bluejays rout<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43890","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=43890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85888,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43890\/revisions\/85888"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43890"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}