Knowing sophomore Mia Glazner was likely Kyndall Schmitt’s target on a 54th-minute corner kick, freshman Raya Hall was ready when the ball slipped past the well-marked hat-trick scorer.
And when the moment came, the freshman trusted her gut instinct.
Hall redirected the ball with her midsection, sneaking it past Bayfield freshman goalkeeper Ariee Hurlbut and punctuating both a road victory and a Class 3A Intermountain League championship.
Glazner then added Montezuma-Cortez’s ninth goal in the 55th minute, glancing a low shot off Hurlbut’s gloves, before Schmitt capped the mercy-rule 10-0 shutout with a 69th-minute breakaway.
The Lady Panthers, who finished league play with a plus-36 goal differential (38-2), improved to 6-0-0 in the IML and 9-2-0 overall.
Montezuma-Cortez led 5-0 at halftime and out-cornered Bayfield 4-0. Glazner restarted the scoring in the 42nd minute, and sophomore Emilynn Hill added a second-half goal in the 48th.
Bayfield, coming off a 10-0 home loss April 18 to 2A Ridgway, dropped to 0-4-0 in league and 2-9-0 overall ahead of hosting Class 4A Grand Junction Central (0-11-0 overall, 0-8-0 4A/5A Southwestern) at 11 a.m. Saturday, April 25.
Montezuma-Cortez will travel that same day to Ridgway (8-2-0, 3-1-0 2A Intermountain-South), which is coming off a 2-1 upset of then-No. 1 Crested Butte on April 21. Kickoff at Cimarron Athletic Field is set for noon.
Ridgway head coach Trevor Peterson faced a dilemma as kickoff at Bayfield neared, with the Durango Demons still missing multiple starters as teams lined up for the traditional cross-field parade and pregame introductions.
Moments later, Ridgway senior Sophia Forrest, sophomore Emery Cornell, freshman Macey Cornell and freshman Marin Emilson sprinted onto the field in full uniform and joined the lineup.
All four had competed earlier that morning at Durango’s Ron Keller Invitational track and field meet and later combined to score four of Ridgway’s first five goals.
The breakthrough came in the 30th minute, when Ridgway junior Sasha Kingsford converted a rebound after senior Addy Gardiner’s shot was deflected by Bayfield goalkeeper Ariee Hurlbut.
Gardiner hit the crossbar in the 34th before Emery Cornell scored a minute later. Forrest then stripped the ball from Bayfield junior defender Aubree Tideman in the 36th minute to give Ridgway a 3-0 halftime lead.
Assisted by Forrest, Macey Cornell opened the second-half scoring in the 42nd minute, and Forrest added another goal two minutes later. Kingsford scored her fourth goal of the match in the 76th.
Forrest and Emery Cornell each finished with two goals, while Gardiner added one on a 23-yard free kick over a multiplayer wall in the 53rd minute. Peterson later replaced starting goalkeeper Myelle Link, a sophomore, with freshman Sloan Patton.
Montezuma-Cortez also changed goalkeepers in Bayfield, with junior regular Raegan Veach finishing the match as a field player.
