The Haxtun-Fleming Herald - What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope

It was a battle in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains Saturday as two of the top five teams in Colorado 8-man football met on the field in Fairplay.

The Bulldogs met up with the Bluejays from Mancos on neutral territory in Fairplay, a middle ground between the two top ranked teams.

Saturday's action started off slow but it sure didn't end that way. Neither team found the end zone in the first quarter but shortly into the second, Mancos struck first putting the first six points of the game on the scoreboard. The Bulldogs settled in and found their groove, eventually putting 16 points on the board to hold a 10-point advantage at half time.

The Bluejays managed eight points in the third to narrow in on the gap heading into the fourth and final quarter. The last 12 minutes of the contest proved to be the most intense, both teams battling for yards and points on the board. Mancos managed to tie things up at 22 in the final minutes but as the clock ticked down to literally the final second, junior Ryland Wolff came up with a huge interception and a 90 yard touchdown run to put the Bulldogs up by six with no time left on the clock.

"Our defense played incredibly well; Mancos had averaged 63 points per game so holding them to 22 points was amazing," said Bulldog Head Coach JD Stone. "We didn't have the best day offensively, we had a lot of mental mistakes, from myself to the last guy on the depth chart, but it is nice to have a game like this early in the season so we can see what we need to work on."

Wolff connected with four of 13 passes in the air for a total of 118 yards and one touchdown. He averaged 29.5 yards per pass. Mason Bornhoft caught two of those passes in the air for a total of 58 receiving yards. Keegan Colglazier had one touchdown catch for a total of 49 yards.

On the ground, Grant Statz carried the ball 18 times for 127 yards. He tallied one touchdown while averaging 7.1 yards per carry. Wolff tallied 70 rushing yards and one touchdown on the ground. He averaged 5.8 yards per carry.

Defensively, Zach Statz led the Bulldogs in total tackles with nine. Kailin Kelley and Grant Statz each registered eight total tackles followed by Kaiden Schelling and Josh Wright, each with six. Grant Statz also tallied two sacks on the Bluejays quarterback.

"The amount assisted tackles we had was off the chart," said Stone. "Every play had two, three or sometimes five or six Bulldogs flying to the ball."

According to the Colorado High School Activities Association RPI ratings, Haxtun now holds the number one spot in Colorado 8-man football action.

"The playoffs are a long way aways, but this win puts us in control of our own destiny for homefield," Stone said of the win over Mancos. "We must take each game at a time, but it is nice to have control of our future."

This week Haxtun is set to travel to Fleming for six-man action against the Wildcats. According to MaxPreps, the Wildcats hold a 1-3 record this season. Game time in Fleming is set for 1 p.m.

"As coaches we sometimes think we are smart and creative with all the Xs and Os, but football is simple, blocking and tackling, at all levels. We will adapt most of our basic offensive and defensive concepts with just a couple less guys and see what we can do," Stone said.