On Friday night, all angles will have to be covered as fast-ascending Alamosa (3-4, 3-0) visits for a 7 p.m. kickoff against the Bayfield Wolverines, with conference title ramifications already at stake.
The Wolverines are again ranked second in state 2A football, according to the CHSAANow.com poll released Monday.
Proving their worth, the Alamosa Mean Moose have defeated Pagosa Springs, Olathe and Gunnison in conference play. That resurgence followed an 0-4 slog through a brutal non-conference stretch started by a visit from last year's 1A State Runners-up (Buena Vista, now 7-0), then trips to 2A's La Junta (7-0), Lamar (4-3) and Trinidad (4-3).
The Mean Moose will arrive for the first home game at Wolverine Country Stadium since Oct. 2. BHS soundly defeated Gunnison on Oct. 9, then Montezuma-Cortez 43-0 on Oct. 16.
Used often as the triggerman in multiple recent trick plays, senior receiver Taed Heydinger's name again stood out from the rest on a Bayfield Football stat report from M-CHS:
One carry, minus-25 yards.
The fact the Wolverines were able to give away a quarter-century of field position poured salt and shaker into M-CHS' wounds. The Panthers managed just a reported 59 total yards against a defense led by BHS seniors Kyle Killough and Clyde Leonard, each credited with eight tackles.
Freshman David Hawkins made seven stops and senior Wyatt Freier five, and the duo totaled three sacks of Montezuma-Cortez senior Cordell Ridings. Hawkins also blocked a first-half punt which the Panthers had no choice but to smother, conceding a key safety (and then free-kicking the ball back to Bayfield, to boot.)
Ridings was the only problem Bayfield needed to remedy. On 15 carries he gained 44 of the Panthers' yards, but booked only a trifling two more on 3-of-14 passing and was intercepted once by BHS sophomore Ryan Phelps during the Wolverines' early onslaught.
Zane Phelps (17-103 rushing, 2 TD) notched another takeaway with a fumble recovery in which Ridings may as well have handed it intentionally to him, seeing the storming senior fill the same space as his own teammate.
Sophomore Hunter Killough (4-17 rushing, 2-25 receiving) enacted the mercy-rule running clock not long after halftime via a 17-yard scamper, and McCoy soon gave the reins to understudy Josh Westbrook. But in a game where the Wolverines amassed just 223 yards of total offense (159 on the ground), something had to set it all off.
Senior Brody McGhehey (5-40 rushing, 1-14 receiving) scored Bayfield's first touchdown and after the two-point conversion run, Hawkins barged through the Panthers' line for the aforementioned punt block and M-CHS safety for a 10-0 advantage.
McCoy (6-of-13 for 64 yards, 0 INT) then carried for a 14-yard score, and Zane Phelps made both of his touchdowns in short order as BHS (6-0, 3-0 Western Slope Conference-South) piled up the overwhelming points, which wasn't surprising to the Panthers (2-5, 1-2).
What was a suprise, even to the Bayfield coaches, was their own special-teams' performance, especially on punt returns.
Heydinger was credited with 44 yards on just one runback and McGhehey over 130 on five runs (a 26.4 yards-per-return average.) One of McGhehey's runs netting 60 yards and six crippling points as the Wolverines turned Montezuma-Cortez's coverage into Swiss cheese.
CHSAANOW.COM CLASS 2A POLL, OCT. 19: 1.Englewood Kent Denver, 2.BAYFIELD, 3.Kersey Platte Valley, 4.La Junta, 5.Lakewood Alameda Int'l., 6.Sterling, 7.Brush, 8.Eaton, 9.Craig Moffat County, 10.Bennett. Others receiving votes-Strasburg, Gunnison, Arvada Faith Christian, Westminster The Academy.
