Three times the Ignacio Bobcats held the upper hand.
Friday night three times its grip just wasn’t tight enough as Cedaredge’s three-headed beast of a backfield attack helped the visitors ultimately pry out a 29-20 nonconference road win at IHS Field.
Senior running back D.J. Hendren gained 119 yards on just 11 carries and scored one touchdown for Ignacio, hoping to bounce back from the previous week’s season-opening 22-19 loss in Denver at Manual, but CHS junior Kolter Mann chewed up 145 yards on 20 attempts and found the end zone three times – including a morale-damaging 52-yarder down the middle of the gridiron, putting the Bruins up 28-20 with 10:12 left in the fourth quarter.
Senior Wylee Lorimor had 99 yards on 22 carries – one ending in a fumble lost to Bobcat junior Aven Bourriague, with 9:10 remaining in a then-scoreless first – and senior Ethan Toothaker 46 yards on 12 tries, one worth six points with 3:29 left before halftime. Mann bulled in for the two-point conversion, and Cedaredge managed to enter intermission as 14-14 equals with the ’Cats.
Cedaredge improved to 1-0 while Ignacio fell to 0-2 overall.
The Bruins also got 23 yards from sophomore quarterback Logan Sanders on ten totes, plus 91 yards on 6-of-10 passing with no TDs but also zero interceptions.
“Really, it’s a running back by committee and all are very capable,” Cedaredge second-year head coach Lane Varner said. “With 1A football we’ve got to keep guys fresh because they play both sides of the ball; it helps us … give a guy a (breather) every once in a while. And Cruz … he’s got a couple weight-room records, weighs about 250 pounds and anchors the right side of our line offensively – that’s where we were going; we wanted to get behind him.”
Straying too far away from the big fella cost Cedaredge early, as after scrambling to the right into open field, Sanders inexplicably lost the football while sensing Bobcat senior Kendrick Nossaman’s pursuit. Flattened onto the turf by Nossaman and William Mendoza-Lechuga, Sanders may not have even seen IHS junior Gabe Archuleta pick up the ball in stride and sprint 39 yards untouched for the game’s initial score.
“When I scooped it I looked to my right and … no one was really there. So I just hit the jets and was gone!” Archuleta said. “Our energy’s been really slow recently, and I feel like that scoop-and-score was a thing that brought it up and gave us momentum through the game.”
Ignacio’s Lincoln deKay was happy for his teammate, especially since the Bobcats’ defensive coach awards a steak dinner to players who score a defensive touchdown.
Bobcats’ junior quarterback Zane Pontine – who’d thrown two TD passes, rushed for one and also picked off two throws against the Thunderbolts – plunged into the end zone from a yard out, capping a penalty-aided 6-play, 55-yard drive and rebuilding the Bobcats’ lead to 20-14 with 7:13 left in the third quarter.
His conversion pass to sophomore Cayson Burcham (two TD catches against MHS), however, was wiped out by a chop-block infraction, and his subsequent second-chance throw targeting Archuleta was broken up by CHS freshman Liam Martin (who’d intercepted Pontine with 7:45 left in the first quarter).
Cedaredge then countered with a tide-turning 14-play, 63-yard march – featuring two fourth-down conversions – eating 5:37 worth of clock and ending with Mann scoring from three yards out. He also carried the two-pointer, giving the Bruins their first lead, 22-20, with 1:35 left.
“We had given them the momentum. We were blocking on d-line instead of going through the gaps – and we figured that out a little bit better … but we’re still going to focus on that quite a bit more,” said deKay. “After the Manual game, we planned to improve the lines – that was our main focus in the week – and we did a little but we’re still going to focus on that more.”
Burcham totaled five receptions for 46 yards against CHS. Archuleta made two catches for 16 yards, Hendren one for five and Bourriague one for four as Pontine finished 9-of-19 for 71 yards.
The Bobcats will next see action at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 13, against nonconference Olathe, then visit 2A Bayfield on the 20th. OHS stood 1-0 overall (0-0 1A Western Slope) before traveling on the 6th to Center (0-1, 0-0 Southern Peaks) for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
“We’ll just watch film and keep grinding like we’ve been,” Archuleta said. “We just need more work, practice and conditioning … everything.”
