<\/p>\n
Just over a year after losing to Sanford, the Mancos High School football team will have the opportunity to redeem themselves when they hit the road for an opening round eight-man playoffs matchup against the Indians on Nov. 21.<\/p>\n
Among the leading storylines heading into the high-profile contest is the matchup between Mancos junior running back Chase Moore and Sanford junior running back Kelton Gartrell, who are widely recognized as two of the top competitors in their classification.<\/p>\n
In last season\u2019s matchup between the two teams, Gartrell got the best of Moore by scoring four touchdowns to help propel Sanford to a 52-24 victory. After running for 791 yards and 14 touchdowns this season however, Moore appears to be poised for redemption.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am just excited (to be playing football),\u201d Moore said after his team\u2019s victory over Hayden earlier this year. \u201cWe did what we did best, and we played our hardest. I just followed my blocks and good things happened.<\/p>\n
While individual statistics for Sanford\u2019s season are not posted online, it is no secret that containing Gartrell is the key for any team hoping to walk away from a game against the Indians with a victory.<\/p>\n
In order to contain Sanford\u2019s versatile junior running back, Mancos will lean heavily on senior linebacker Colt Fury, whose hard-hitting style and nose for the ball have helped him become one of the state\u2019s best defensive players in recent seasons.<\/p>\n
Also figuring to play a role in stopping Gartrell will be senior linebacker Christian Cova, whose 42 tackles this season rank second on the Mancos team. Bluejays defensive ends Lot Martin and Jesse Henry will be counted on to keep containment, while Kail Wayman and Moore will do their best to prevent big plays from their positions in the defensive secondary.<\/p>\n
\u201cFootball is all about physicality,\u201d said Fury, when asked about his team\u2019s defense earlier this season. \u201cI think we\u2019re the hardest-hitting team in eight-man football right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Although it is no secret that the Mancos\u2019 offense starts and stops with Moore, the Bluejays\u2019 ability to involve multiple players in their offense will be key if they hope to upset the No. 2 seed Sanford squad.<\/p>\n
Among the players most likely to complement Moore is sophomore quarterback Ayden Mathews, who has flashed the ability to throw the ball downfield this season while amassing 295 passing yards and eight passing touchdowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cA big part of our game is our run game,\u201d said Mathews, after throwing five touchdown passes against Norwood earlier this year. \u201cWe wanted to get (the Norwood defense) coming forward and then toss it over them. That\u2019s a big goal for our season and a big goal for seasons to come as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with Mathews, fullback\/receiver Christian Cova and receiver James Wagoner could play a key role for their team in the event that the Sanford defense hones in on Moore. Thus far this season, Cova has accumulated 163 yards rushing and 120 yards receiving, and Wagoner has caught two touchdowns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re a power football team,\u201d Cova said. \u201cHard and strong is how we\u2019ve always wanted to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Sanford will be the favored team entering Saturday\u2019s contest, players and coaches on both sides have emphasized that the team that is able to limit its mistakes and make plays during key times is likely to walk away with the victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to not make mistakes and keep the ball off the ground,\u201d Mancos head coach Josh Gardner said. \u201cWe had a couple of bad snaps and multiple turnovers (against Dove Creek). If we can control the ball, we\u2019ll be fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the event that Mancos pulls an upset against Sanford, the seventh-seeded Bluejays will play the winner of an opening-round playoff matchup between third-seeded Fowler and sixth-seeded Merino.<\/p>\n
For now though, Mancos\u2019 sole focus will be on redeeming themselves against a tough Sanford squad that shocked them last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bluejays hoping to avenge last season\u2019s loss<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[4845,28,37,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-american-football","tag-headlines","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50383","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=50383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87733,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50383\/revisions\/87733"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50383"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}