Cowboys lose close one to Montezuma-Cortez, 25-21

The Gunnison High School football team dropped another one-score game, falling to Montezuma-Cortez 25-21 at home on Friday, Sept. 25. 

With the loss, the Cowboys are now on a four-game losing streak and three of the four games have been lost by five or fewer points.

“It's a hard loss when you lose like that, but, again, we were down going into the second half and from what I've seen from the last few years is that Gunnison gets down quite a bit, and they tend to shut down, but this team, this group, did not shut down whatsoever,” said head coach Chase Starman. “So I was proud to see them not give up.”

The Cowboys found themselves down 19-7 after the first half, but kept fighting. They scored two touchdowns in the second half, but gave up another to the Panthers and weren’t able to find the endzone again in the game.

Quarterback Asher Woytek finished the game 13-for-29 for 152 yards and two interceptions. He also carried the ball four times for 18 yards and a touchdown.

Jorge Perez led the team with 21 carries for 126 yards and two touchdowns. Nolan Witzel also had 10 rushes for 27 yards in the contest.

Tytus Williams caught seven passes for 56 yards, Parker Vick caught two passes for 52 yards and Deegan Bennett caught three passes for 38 yards.

Witzel led the team with 13 total tackles and three tackles for a loss, one of which was a sack. Carlos Serrano also recovered a fumble for the Cowboys.

The Cowboys now will face the Delta Panthers in Delta on Friday, Oct. 2. The Panthers are 6-0 and ranked third in 2A.

“It's no easy task by any means, but it's not (an) impossible task by any means either,” said Starman. “I think that we've been playing in these close games. This week it really is about just trying to keep it close for an entire four quarters and then see if we can't find ourselves in a situation where we can go out there and win it in the end.”

Starman is stressing small successes every play over big explosive plays once or twice a game to the team ahead of their matchup with Delta. Small successes and each player executing their part on both sides of the ball is the recipe that Starman feels could work if the Cowboys want to upset the Panthers.

“We're leaning on the Gunnison Cowboys as a whole, as a team, to do their 1/11th, do their job, execute their job, and then finish through with their job for an entire four quarters,” said Starman.