For brief moments during a home soccer game against Ridgway on Sept. 12, the Montezuma-Cortez High School boys flashed some potential. The vast majority of the game’s highlights belonged to Ridgway however, as the Demons defeated the Panthers, 5-1.
Throughout the first half of the Intermountain League matchup, Ridgway’s midfielders and forwards maintained possession of the ball and mounted numerous offensive attacks as clearly frustrated M-CHS head coach Bobby Sitton looked on.
After two near misses in the game’s opening minutes, Ridgway’s first goal finally came courtesy of Ian Yocum, who headed a perfect crossing pass from teammate Andrew Winkelmann into the back of the net in the fifth minute.
The Demons struck again in the 19th minute when Chace Blanton headed a crossing pass through traffic, off Yocum, and into an open net, which had been vacated after M-CHS goalkeeper Teagan Whiteskunk attempted to snare the crossing pass.
Ridgway’s final goal of the first half came from flashy sophomore midfielder Robert Beserra, who collected an M-CHS turnover deep inside Panthers territory in the game’s 34th minute and fired a low shot just inside the left post from a seemingly impossible angle.
Shortly after Beserra’s goal, Ridgway again gained possession deep in M-CHS territory, and an unidentified Panthers player shouted at his teammates, “Come on guys, they’re running circles around us.”
One of the few first-half highlights for the Panthers came from sophomore Justin Gray, who headed a long pass from a teammate between two Ridgway defenders near midfield before hustling to the ball and dribbling in for a shot on goal.
“Coach pushes us to hustle in practice, and if we aren’t, we’re running,” said Gray. “We get in the habit of hustling during practice, and that translates to the game.”
After a spirited halftime speech by Sitton, during which he urged his team to “play with some intensity and some passion and show that we deserve to be out here,” M-CHS looked far better in the second half.
After Blanton scored Ridgway’s fourth goal of the game in the game’s 45th minute, the Panthers broke through with a beautiful play by Jelson Yanez, who raced past two Ridgway defenders to collect a loose ball before firing a perfect right-to-left crossing pass to Gray, who chipped the ball in to cut the Demons’ lead to 4-1.
“We always have to work with our speed and focus on the game,” said Yanez, when asked about the play.
“(Yanez) had a beautiful cross,” added Gray. “I was calling for (the ball) the whole time, and after he crossed it, it was an easy touch-in.”
With time winding down in the game’s 80th minute, the Demons added one final goal, by Beserra, who dribbled down the middle past several M-CHS defenders before chipping a shot into the upper left-hand corner of the net.
“We started off low, we played low, and we finished low,” Sitton said. “At moments, we were able to finally start building some attack, but our executions were just too sloppy. We’ve got to get our heads up and start finding our easy passes. Right now, we’re just not getting it done.”
Now 0-6-0 on the season, the Panthers’ next game will take place at Telluride High School. The varsity game was scheduled to begin at 4 p.m. Thursday. There will be no JV game.
