MANCOS – When playing against the Bluejays, opposing defense have to pick their poison.
Stack the box to try to slow down senior Kaiden Wyatt and his north-south running style, and it opens up the edges. Bring up the defensive backs to take away Brandon Vannest and the perimeter rushing attack, and it creates opportunities for the passing game to take shots downfield.
No matter what teams have tried to take away, the Jays have found other ways to move the football.
In their state quarterfinal meeting, the visiting Byers Bulldogs chose to take their chances behind door number two – make Mancos beat them through the air.
Challenge accepted.
Vannest more than doubled his season average of passing yards per game, launching four touchdowns and over 200 yards through the air as the Bluejays scored on all six of their possessions to topple Byers 44-20 and advance to the state semifinals.
Right from the game’s opening possession, the Byers defense made their intentions clear – stop the Mancos ground game. So, in response, Mancos went to the air, as Vannest connected on the first of many downfield throws with sophomore Michael Resner for a 32-yard gain.
Then, just a few plays later on fourth down, Vannest caught Wyatt alone in the secondary after the Bulldogs sold out on a run stop on fourth and short. Wyatt raced to the end zone for the opening points less than four minutes into the contest.
“We have a ton of respect for Byers – they had a game plan to shut down our power game,” said seventh-year head coach Josh Gardner, “and so we had to adjust, but we’ve been practicing the passing game a lot – and Brandon had a really good game today.”
The high-powered Byers offense responded with a nearly nine-minute drive, converting two fourth downs, including a nine-yard touchdown run from senior Chase Long on fourth and goal, cutting the deficit to 8-6.
Mancos (10-1) answered right back in just over a minute, as the aerial attack paid dividends for the second time. Junior Jonah Ritter, the lightning counterpunch to Wyatt’s punishing running style, found himself on the end of another Vannest pass. Ritter slipped out of a tackle, then showed off his all-state track speed, turning a what might have been a modest gain into a 70-yard score.
“This game showed that we’re a really dynamic team with tons of weapons across the offense,” said Vannest, “once we saw what they were trying to do, we were able to make the quick adjustment, and it worked out.”
The Jays defense continued the momentum, with senior Seth Oakes putting together a fantastic day with several solo stops and a sack. Mancos turned Byers away midway through the second quarter, then zipped down the field for another scoring drive. Vannest’s precise passes caught his receivers in stride, including junior Ethan Wyatt in the back of the end zone on a 15-yard connection to build the lead to 24-6.
Mancos added another score before the break, with Ritter tallying a second receiving score after the defense forced a Byers punt.
The Bulldogs would answer and appear to climb back into the game, after a big kickoff return set up a five-yard receiving score by senior Kaleb Willoughby to give Byers life at halftime in a 30-14 contest.
Byers (10-1) then added another score on their first possession of the second half to trim the lead further, with Willoughby adding his second trip to the end zone and suddenly the Bluejay 24-point lead had shrunk to 10, 30-20.
Needing a jolt to bring the energy back to the blue-and-white sideline, the Mancos offense provided just that. On a fourth-and-two from the Byers 48-yard line, Vannest swept around the right side, and just as he was about to be tackled short of the line to gain, he pitched the ball into the waiting hands of Ritter. The junior saw daylight ahead, bursting along the Bluejay sideline for his third house call of the day.
In their final surge, Byers drove the ball inside the Mancos 10-yard line, trying to cut the game to a one-score contest, but the Bluejays stuffed Long on fourth-and-short to get the ball back early in the fourth quarter with a 36-20 lead.
“That’s a really good offense that our defense stopped,” added Gardner, recognizing that Byers had not been held under 35 points in a game all season, “our boys rose up to the challenge.”
Mancos then proceeded to salt the game away, as the Byers defense could no longer stop the Mancos ground game, before a fourth down completion in Bulldog territory from Vannest to Ethan Wyatt earned a precious first down. Vannest capped the drive with a one-yard exclamation point to not only end a nine-minute drive, but also end the Bulldogs unbeaten season.
The Bluejays advance to their fourth straight state semifinal, an incredible feat considering that prior to 2021, the program had never made it that far in the postseason.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of a lot of great teams,” added Vannest, “and we’ve put in the work every year because this is the goal.”
No. 1 seed Haxtun (10-1) awaits in the semis, which will serve as the third postseason meeting with the Fightin’ Bulldogs in the past four years – with the previous two encounters coming in the title game in Pueblo.
With a rematch of the 2023 state finals in front of them, Gardner knows that the way they topped Byers bodes well for them. “It was a whole team effort,” he said, “and that’s the kind of game that we’re going to need to have going forward.”
