State records were meaningless to the Bayfield High School football team Saturday. All that mattered was winning the state championship.
Powered by a historic defense, Bayfield delivered in front of 5,000-plus fans at Wolverine Country Stadium in Bayfield in the first state title game played in La Plata County since 1968. Behind three touchdown passes for junior quarterback Hayden Farmer and eight sacks and two interceptions from the defense, Bayfield blasted defending champion La Junta 34-7 to claim the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 2A football state championship.
It is Bayfield's third state championship in school history, adding to the trophies earned in 1996 and 2015.
Bayfield jumped out to an early 20-0 lead behind two touchdown passes from Farmer. The two teams exchanged punts after their first possessions, and another La Junta three-and-out gave Bayfield the ball on the La Junta 44-yard line. Six plays later, Farmer hit Carl Heide on a 12-yard touchdown pass on play action. Farmer faked a handoff to Heide, who wheeled around the left sideline and hauled in the pass with no defenders around him. Chris Mooney made the extra point, and Bayfield led 7-0 with 3 minutes, 29 seconds to play in the first quarter.
The Wolverines added one more score at the first-quarter buzzer, as Farmer hit Dax Snooks with a 15-yard TD pass in the back right corner of the end zone. It was Farmer's 15th touchdown pass of the season to Snooks, and it gave the Wolverines a 14-0 lead after one quarter.
Keyon Prior made a brilliant interception on La Junta's fourth possession of the game. La Junta quarterback Jon Nuschy rolled to his right to evade pressure and tried to throw the ball out of bounds near midfield. Prior alertly tapped his toes in bounds and dove for the ball and secured the interception at the La Junta 47-yard line. Behind powerful runs from David Hawkins, the Wolverines got inside the La Junta 5-yard line before Carl Heide dove in for a touchdown from 3 yards out. Mooney missed the extra point, but Bayfield led 20-0 with 5:45 to play in the first half.
La Junta didn't pick up a first down until the final minute of the first half. Nuschy scrambled and hit Zach Archuleta for an 11-yard gain, and Nuschy came up big again with a 12-yard pass to Wyatt Buhr.
Bayfield sack master Ryan Phelps, who had two sacks in the first half, was held on the play, but no flag was thrown. Three plays later, and after Prior was flagged for pass interference, Nuschy hit Kain Direzza on a 10-yard TD pass to cut Bayfield's lead to 20-7 with 22 seconds to go in the half.
Bayfield took a knee and took the advantage into halftime and received to open the third quarter.
Both teams were sluggish to start the second half, as the first four drives all ended with punts after three plays. But Bayfield's defense went to work and piled up sacks against Nuschy and the Tigers. Cole Wood had a sack with 9:15 to play in the third quarter to tie the previous Colorado record of 60 in one season, set by Discovery Canyon in 2014. Bayfield finished with eight sacks to push the record to 64. Wood added an interception in the second half, and he finished with three sacks and an interception.
The game was iced when Farmer hit Carl Heide for a 60-yard TD pass to extend the Bayfield lead to 27-7 with 8:25 to play. Hunter Killough added an 11-yard TD run to make it 34-7 late in the fourth quarter, and La Junta conceded to run out the clock from there.
The game was played in front of the largest crowd to ever see a high school football game in southwest Colorado.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
