The goal of every Colorado volleyball and football program is to still be playing into November. For a quartet of local programs, not only is that goal achieved, but for Mancos and Dove Creek football and volleyball, the Bluejays and Bulldogs have hopes of playing for a quite a bit longer.
After strong regular season showings for all four squads, each team learned their postseason path, with regional and state tournament brackets released by CHSAA earlier this week.
After going one-two in the San Juan Basin League standings, the 2A Mancos and 1A Dove Creek landed home sites for their regionals.
Mancos, under head coach Brianna Yeomans-Allison, quickly ascended into the top 10 in the state rankings after a fast start and never looked back on their way to a No. 5 seed in the regional rankings. As a result, the Jays claim one of the 12 host locations for the regional.
The Bluejays (21-2) will face No. 32 Olathe (11-10) on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 11 a.m. to kick off regional play at Bluejay Fieldhouse.
From there, the third regional opponent, Sargent (16-7) will face the Pirates in the middle of three matches in Mancos, immediately after the opening match.
The Bluejays and Farmers will meet in the final matchup of the regional, with the top team from the three matches advancing to the Denver Coliseum the following weekend for the 2A state tournament.
Meanwhile, for Dove Creek, the 1A format for qualification changed this year, with 12 regional hosts playing a single elimination match to determine which dozen squads will play in the 1A state championships.
Much like Mancos, the No. 8 Bulldogs (21-2) rolled to a top 10 ranking right from the outset of the season, and now have a home match against No. 17 DeBeque (15-8). A win Saturday would propel head coach Lacey Murphy’s group to yet another state tournament appearance for the Dogs.
Across the state’s football scene, the top 16 teams in the state in Colorado’s four small school classifications now know their paths in pursuit of a place at CSU-Pueblo’s Thunderbowl in the state final.
For 8-1 Mancos, it’s a route that will see the Bluejays on their home turf all the way until the final, as head coach Josh Gardner’s team claimed the No. 1 seed in the bracket. Their journey begins on Friday night at 6 p.m., when No. 16 Fowler (5-4) pays a visit to Bluejay Field to kick off the 8-man postseason.
If the Jays advance, they would take on the winner of either No. 8 West Grand (8-1) or No. 9 Sedgwick County (5-4) in the state quarterfinals – a contest that Mancos would host.
Dove Creek also landed a home contest to open the postseason, as the No. 5 Bulldogs (7-2) will take on No. 12 Vail Christian (6-3) at the Soper Sports Complex on Saturday, Nov. 4, at 1 p.m. A win for head coach Jason Fury’s team would move them into a quarterfinal matchup against either No. 4 Lyons (9-0) or No. 13 Akron (6-3).
Mancos and Dove Creek sit on the same side of the bracket and could meet in the state semifinal, if both advance to that stage.
For Montezuma-Cortez, a bid for a second straight postseason berth came up agonizingly short, as the Panthers dropped their regular season finale to Delta to finish with a 4-5 record. When the final 2A seedings emerged, M-CHS landed as No. 17, just one place outside the 2A tournament field. The Delta Panthers earned the classification’s top seed and enter the tournament as one of the favorites to make it to Pueblo on the weekend after Thanksgiving.
