As the excitement came to a close, Bayfield’s win against Alamosa last Friday felt more like a parade than a football game. It was never close, and every Bayfield senior played to the lofty expectations while clinching the program’s 14th league title on senior night.
Now comes the hard part: Playing one more game of the regular season with the Class 2A Western Slope League title in hand, postseason glances looming and a new No. 1 ranking by the Colorado High School Activities Association.
The Bayfield High School football team (7-0, 4-0) will travel to Pagosa Springs (1-7, 0-4) to face the Pirates at 7 p.m. to finish the season.
“It will be their last game, so they’ll be fired up,” Bayfield head coach Gary Heide said after last Friday’s victory. “We can’t take any team lightly, and we have to be a hard-nosed football team. Pagosa has a lot of pride, and they will play their last game down to the wire.”
This is Heide’s fourth season as Bayfield’s head coach, and in that span he has gone 28-10 overall and 18-5 in league with two league championships.
Bayfield is coming off one of its finest performances of the year last Friday with the 41-7 win against the Mean Moose to clinch the title. In that game, senior Zane Phelps showed why he’s a force to be reckoned with when the stakes are high by finishing with 171 yards and three touchdowns on 21 carries.
Phelps is 28 yards shy of cracking 1,000 rushing yards for the season, and his 15 total touchdowns easily are a team high.
With big numbers and a new top ranking by CHSAA, Phelps still believes Pagosa Springs will be tough.
Pagosa Springs has three young quarterbacks who have all played this season. Sophomore Ty Kimsey has played in seven games and passes for one touchdown and rushed for three more. He leads the team with 504 rushing yards this season.
Pagosa Springs senior Tyler Cowan has four rushing touchdowns and 212 rushing yards in six games played.
“We’re not overlooking Pagosa,” said Phelps, son of Dion and Koel Phelps. “We know we need to come out with execution. We know we’re a better team, but we know they’ve had a long season, and they’re going to come out with all they have and try to get one more win. But we’re not going to let them stop us.”
Last season, the Wolverines beat the Pirates in Bayfield 29-2. Phelps had a typical insane Zane day with 110 yards and two touchdowns.
The Wolverines will clamp down on a Pirates team that has only scored 39 points in league games and has allowed opponents to score 256 points the entire season.
This will be a warm-up game for the Wolverines, who will look for more clutch plays from players such as seniors Brody Mcghehey, who is 50 yards shy of 500 rushing yards this season, and Taed Heydinger, who is coming off a two-score game against Alamosa. Heydinger scored the opening touchdown from 10 yards out and returned an interception 66 yards for another score.
“We have to prepare, our coaches do a great job preparing us. We’re ready,” said Heydinger, son of Chris and Tim Heydinger.
jmentzer@durangoherald.com
If you go
Who: No. 1 Bayfield at Pagosa Springs
What: Class 2A Western Slope South League high school football
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: Pagosa Springs
Listen Live: KLJH 107.1 FM
Twitter: @jonathanmentzer
