{"id":82546,"date":"2023-04-29T20:01:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-30T02:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-locks-up-girls-league-soccer-title-2\/"},"modified":"2023-04-29T20:01:46","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T02:01:46","slug":"montezuma-cortez-locks-up-girls-league-soccer-title-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-locks-up-girls-league-soccer-title-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez locks up girls\u2019 league soccer title"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Montezuma-Cortez's
Montezuma-Cortez's Jordi Mahler controls the ball during M-CHS' April 17 home match versus Bayfield. Mahler scored the only goal in a 1-0 win in that first meeting, and on Thursday she scored twice \u2013 including the match-winner at BHS. (Joel Priest\/Special to the Journal)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It took just a second for Jordi Mahler\u2019s nose to know what the rest of Montezuma-Cortez girls\u2019 soccer already knew.<\/p>\n

Needing nothing more than a tie in either of their two remaining 3A Southwestern matches to lock up outright the league title for a second straight season \u2013 versus Alamosa at home on Friday, or at Pagosa Springs the next day \u2013 the Panthers first won the match they most needed on Thursday. M-CHS celebrated Mahler\u2019s match-winning stoppage-time strike in such a way where the sophomore standout took an accidental, blood-drawing shove to the nose.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re on a streak right now, and I thought we were going to lose that,\u201d said sophomore Luna Moore. \u201cBut after that goal went in we were all so excited. It was amazing!\u201d<\/p>\n

M-CHS was gifted a close-range rebound opportunity in the 82nd minute by Bayfield backup goalkeeper Kaydence Hunter, who\u2019d leapt to bat down senior Sophia Shepard\u2019s free kick taken from about 30 yards out. Mahler, whose 26th-minute finish of a Shepard assist was the only first-half score, quickly capitalized \u2013 not only giving M-CHS a 3-2 road win, but an insurmountable 4-2 head-to-head goal differential over the Wolverines.<\/p>\n

Less than 15 scoreboard minutes earlier, Bayfield had appeared destined to even the sides\u2019 season set at one victory each when hearty junior Genesis Barrera \u2013 virtually KO\u2019d near the end of the first half by a ball to her own face \u2013 received a Sydney Rey throw-in, dribbled the ball to about 15 yards away from M-CHS goalie Aubrey Rutherford\u2019s left\/near post, and zinged a shot into the back corner for a 2-1 advantage in the 70th.<\/p>\n

Looking to deny Montezuma-Cortez a ninth straight triumph, Bayfield (6-4 overall, 4-2 SWL) almost put the match out of reach in the 73rd, but senior Abria Thayer hit Rutherford\u2019s crossbar from the front edge of the Panthers\u2019 18. Moments later, Rutherford robbed junior Lily Lewin with a diving, left-handed save and kept the guests\u2019 hopes alive.<\/p>\n

Returning to action after intermission, Barrera evened the match at 1-1 with a 48th-minute finish of a Thayer free kick. M-CHS, however, would retie at 2-all when Moore followed up a Mahler shot in the 77th which Hunter \u2013 replacing McKenna Noonan, seriously injured at PSHS two days before \u2013 initially stopped but couldn\u2019t clutch.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d just played a game against Ridgway, and won 4-1 after losing 4-1 to them in our very first game. I feel like that boosted our confidence,\u201d Moore said, referencing the Panthers\u2019 Tuesday victory in an away contest moved to Montrose after 2A RHS\u2019 field was blanketed by fresh snow.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur footwork\u2019s just been getting better, our communication\u2019s been better,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe came into this knowing it was going to be a hard game, and we\u2019re all tired, exhausted. We have four games in (five) days right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The busy stretch will conclude with a rescheduled nonleaguer (from March 30) on Tuesday at 2A Telluride.<\/p>\n

BHS, meanwhile, will travel to Ridgway (4-4-1 overall before a Intermountain-South match at Crested Butte on Saturday) on Tuesday. BHS will then return to visit 2A Ignacio two days later.<\/p>\n

Aftermath: Montezuma-Cortez in fact solidified first place in league on Friday, though not in as dramatic fashion as witnessed inside Wolverine Country Stadium. Hosting AHS, the Panthers (9-3-1, 4-0-1 SWL) failed to put a ball in the net, but so did the Mean Moose (6-5-1, 2-3-1) as the match ended up 0-0 after two 10-minute overtime periods.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bayfield puts M-CHS in the clear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1871,28,845],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-82546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-bayfield-high-school","tag-headlines","tag-soccer"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82546","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=82546"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82546\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82546"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=82546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}