{"id":73712,"date":"2016-08-25T19:32:21","date_gmt":"2016-08-26T01:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/m-chs-soccer-team-has-high-hopes\/"},"modified":"2016-08-26T01:32:21","modified_gmt":"2016-08-26T01:32:21","slug":"m-chs-soccer-team-has-high-hopes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/m-chs-soccer-team-has-high-hopes\/","title":{"rendered":"M-CHS soccer team has high hopes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Manuel
Manuel Martinez uses his head to control the ball against Ridgway last season. Martinez, who led the team in scoring last year, returns for his senior season.<\/span>Sam Green\/Cortez Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Montezuma-Cortez soccer team opens the 2016 season on Saturday against Delta.<\/p>\n

The Panthers will be without five graduates from last year\u2019s squad, but they return seniors Manuel Martinez, Jesus Ruiz and Skyler Yarbrough.<\/p>\n

The trio will serve as team captains and provide offensive firepower for the Panthers. Last season, Martinez scored 17 of the Panthers\u2019 25 goals, Ruiz chipped in two, and Yarbrough tallied three assists.<\/p>\n

Other key returners are juniors Kolby Waltman and Parker Bell and sophomore Jackson Byerly. Head coach Sean Fitzgerald also has talented freshmen out for the team, saying that Davian Robinson may start at goalkeeper and Alden Adams should see time up front.<\/p>\n

During the opening two weeks of practice, Fitzgerald put his team through track workouts, hill runs and sprints in order to get into game shape. And watching the team scrimmage during two-a-days, he said he felt like the team clicked and became a cohesive group.<\/p>\n

\u201cRobert [Laymon] and I were talking about how this team as a whole is the most talented team together,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe don\u2019t have the most talented players. But together, I think they are by far the best we\u2019ve had in four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The high praise is accompanied by high expectations, especially after last year\u2019s 2-13 record.<\/p>\n

The Panthers will continue play in the Southwest Soccer League against Alamosa, Bayfield, Center, Crested Butte, Pagosa Springs, Ridgway and Telluride \u2013 but Fitzgerald is expecting a better turnout this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the biggest goal for the year is making state,\u201d he said. \u201cWe haven\u2019t done it for 16 years or something like that. I may be way off on that number, but it\u2019s been bad. So that\u2019s the biggest goal, but the little goals in-between are staying with every team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we had two or three blowouts last year,\u201d he continued, \u201cwhich we shouldn\u2019t in this league. Especially with the talent that we\u2019ve had come through here. And with this team now, hopefully with them playing as a team, I don\u2019t know, but I\u2019m really excited about this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Panthers get into action on Saturday at 11 a.m. at Johnson Field.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sean Fitzgerald optimistic about team\u2019s chemistry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73713,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[36],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-73712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73712","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=73712"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73712\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73712"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=73712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}