The Mancos Blue Jays are fully aware of their status in the Mountain league standings.
They’re currently sitting in third with a 3-1 conference record, behind Dove Creek and Sargent, which are both 4-0 in league play.
On Saturday the Blue Jays will take on the fourth-place Sangre de Cristo Thunderbirds, and they grasp the significance of the game.
“To have any chance of getting into the playoffs, we’ve got to beat these guys,” said co-head coach Bill Parsons.
The Thunderbirds won the Mountain conference last year, and co-head coach Josh Gardner expects them to be good again.
“I expect them to play pretty strong on defense,” he said. “Offense, same thing. They’ve got a good left tackle.”
Other than their three first-half fumbles last week, the Blue Jays may want to stick with the same game plan.
In their previous games, Mancos rushed for 535 yards against Sierra Grande, while the Thunderbirds allowed over 400 yards rushing to Fowler.
Parsons and Gardner should let the big dogs eat and give Everett Strazza-Whalen, Axel Bonde and Drew Morgan plenty of carries.
Sophomore safety Kaleb Hargraves had been having a stellar season before going down last week with a broken collar bone.
His absence may have raised questions of how the Blue Jays secondary would respond.
But Richard Martinez answered them.
“We sure hate to lose Kaleb,” Parsons said. “But thankfully Richard was there.”
Filling in for Hargraves, Martinez had 12 tackles and an interception against Sierra Grande.
“He saved our bacon a couple of times,” said Parsons.
The Blue Jays know that if they want to have a shot at the playoffs, they need to take care of business on Saturday against Sangre de Cristo.
Then, they will travel to Dove Creek next week for the regular season finale.