Though aware that Montezuma-Cortez High School girls soccer sophomore Mia Glazner was probably classmate Kyndall Schmitt’s primary target when Schmitt prepared to serve up a 54th-minute corner kick, when the ball got past the well-marked Glazner on Tuesday evening, Raya Hall was ready.
When the moment came, Hall’s virtual hip-check of a volley not only bypassed surprised Bayfield girls soccer freshman goalie Ariee Hurlbut, given her second career start with senior Lily Muir still out due to concussion protocol, but truly punctuated both a 10-0 away victory and a 3A Intermountain League championship.
Glazner, fittingly, then netted M-CHS’ ninth goal by glancing a low shot of Hurlbut’s gloves in the 55th, and Schmitt polished off the Panthers’ mercy-rule 10-nil shutout by converting a 69th-minute breakaway. Owning a devastating plus-36 (38-2) goal differential in regular-season IML play after the away win at Bayfield, Montezuma-Cortez, which stood No. 9 in CHSAA’s week-starting Class 3A rankings, improved to 6-0-0 in league and to 9-2-0 overall.
M-CHS had led 5-0 through one 40-minute half of play, and out-cornered BHS 4-0 by match’s end. Glazner restarted the scoring, post-intermission, in the 42nd minute, and sophomore Emilynn Hill added her second-half goal in the 48th.
Coming in perhaps not quite fully recharged from a 10-nil home loss on Saturday to 2A Ridgway, Bayfield dropped to 0-4-0 in league and to 2-9-0 overall prior to welcoming 4A Grand Junction Central (0-11-0, 0-8-0 4A/5A Southwestern) on Saturday at 11 a.m.
The Panthers meanwhile, will travel to aforementioned Ridgway (8-2-0, 3-1-0 2A Intermountain-South), certain to be extra energized after hosting and upsetting league rival Crested Butte (6-2-2, 1-1-0), at the time ranked No. 1 in 2A, on Tuesday by a 2-1 margin. Kickoff at Cimarron Athletic Field is set for noon
BETTER (ALMOST) LATE THAN NEVER: Ridgway head coach Trevor Peterson had a bit of a dilemma on his hands as kickoff on Saturday at BHS neared for the Demons, still missing multiple starters as the sides began lining up for a traditional cross-field parade.
However, RHS senior Sophia Forrest, sophomore Emery Cornell, freshman Macey Cornell and freshman Marin Emilson came bolting, fully-uniformed, onto the grass and dashed to the back of the team’s line. All four had already been active track-and-field participants that morning at Durango’s Ron Keller Invitational, and would then combine to score four of Ridgway’s first five goals as Ridgway ran away with a 10-0 win.
The breakthrough was a little long in coming, with RHS junior Sasha Kingsford converting a 30th-minute rebound of senior Addy Gardiner’s shot initially deflected away by Hurlbut. After Gardiner rocked Hurlbut’s crossbar in the 34th, Emery Cornell netted the guests’ second goal in the 35th. Forrest then stole the ball away from BHS junior defender Aubree Tideman in the 36th and increased Ridgway’s eventual halftime advantage to 3-0.
Assisted by Forrest, Macey Cornell restarted the scoring in the 42nd minute, and Forrest converted another takeaway into the Demons’ fifth goal just two minutes later. Kingsford would net her fourth goal, the match’s last, in the 76th. All told, Forrest and the younger Cornell each totaled two goals, and Gardiner one – via a perfect 23-yard free kick over a multiplayer wall in the 53rd minute.
