BAYFIELD – The first drive of each half was all the Bayfield offense needed to produce enough points for the defense to preserve a bounce-back victory.
In the Class 2A Intermountain League opener, the Bayfield High School football team earned a 34-3 victory against Gunnison on Friday night at Wolverine Country Stadium in Bayfield. The Wolverines scored on its opening drive of each half, and the defense was once again a formidable force in holding Gunnison to only 20 yards of offense through three quarters and 48 total in the game.
“For our defensive line, that’s the way it has got to be all year long if we want to keep winning like this,” said BHS senior lineman Sam Westbrook, who had 2.5 sacks.
The Wolverines (3-2, 1-0 IML) started the game with a brilliant 18-play, 80-yard drive. Josh Westbrook was 7-of-7 passing for 56 yards and dove into the end zone on a 1-yard run for a touchdown to give Bayfield an early 7-0 lead. The drive consumed 8 minutes, 48 seconds of game clock.
“It felt great, especially after last week throwing three picks at Durango,” Josh Westbrook said. “It felt good to get confidence going early.”
The Cowboys (2-3, 0-1 IML) could do nothing in the opening half outside of the first drive. A big kickoff return by Luke Tovar set him up for a 48-yard field goal in the first quarter, and he connected to cut the BHS lead to 7-3 late in the first. Tovar had a chance at another long field goal in the second quarter but came up short on a 46-yard attempt to help BHS go into halftime with its 7-3 lead.
The Bayfield running game struggled in the first half with only 48 yards on 18 carries. Leading rusher David Hawkins, a sophomore, was held to 13 yards on only four carries.
But Hawkins and the rest of the BHS rushing attack gained momentum in the second half with 156 rushing yards in the final two quarters.
“We went into the locker room, and we set it in our minds that this is our house,” said Sam Westbrook, son of Kirsten and Mark Westbrook. “We’re not going to roll over, and we’re not going to be stopped.”
Hawkins scored on a 1-yard touchdown run to cap off a 10-play drive on Bayfield’s first possession of the half. The drive was propelled by a big 48-yard pass completion from Westbrook to Brian Mashak, who went over a defender to haul in the pass.
After the Bayfield defense pushed Gunnison back 11 yards on its next drive, helped largely by a big sack from Sam Westbrook, the Wolverines took over on their own 42 and began marching down the field again for an eight-play, 58-yard drive that ended with a 20-yard touchdown pass from Josh Westbrook to Mashak on the first play of the fourth quarter. Westbrook finished 12-of-17 passing for 143 yards and one touchdown.
“The play wasn’t initially designed for me, but our quarterback read their defense well and found me open in the end zone,” said Mashak, son of Bryan Meador and Melanie Mashak.
After driving Gunnison backwards three yards on first down, the Wolverines defense again came up huge when Keyon Prior intercepted Wallin on second down to give BHS the ball back on the Gunnison 46. Prior ran for 33 yards on the next offensive play, and Carl Heide capped off the quick scoring strike with a 10-yard run into the end zone to give BHS a 27-3 lead.
The Cowboys had their best offensive drive of the night in the fourth quarter, going 25 yards with the ball before Hawkins intercepted a Wallin pass to crush any Cowboy hopes of a comeback.
A 40-yard run by Prior quickly changed field position, and Jesse Westbrook ran in from six yards out to give the Wolverines their final score and a 34-3 advantage.
Bayfield will get a favorable matchup for homecoming at 7 p.m. next Friday against Montezuma-Cortez (1-4).
“One thing about our defensive unit is we know every game we go into that we’re gonna be in the game,” BHS head coach Gary Heide said.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
