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John Vandelinder: Bulldog beat for Oct. 14

John Vandelinder

The cross country team wrapped up its regular season, and the soccer and volleyball teams will do the same this week.

The harriers are going to the postseason, while I think it’s safe to say the volleyball and soccer teams will not.

What has yet to be determined is what the football team will be doing come the playoffs Nov. 7.



Lets take a look:

Cross Country



For the ninth-consecutive week, the Bulldog cross country team tops the beat.

Alicia Nelson won again – for the fifth time in eight races this season – in the team’s final tune-up for the state regionals in Gypsum.

When looking at the times recorded by the team, a wide grin erupts from my cheeks.

Moffat County had six runners complete the 5,000-meter track in less than 17 minutes.

That’s really fast, folks.

But, the track was totally downhill, so the times are admittedly skewed.

That said, the confidence gained from the experience could only help the team’s mindset heading into Delta for the state regionals.

This time next week, I hope to be talking about the Bulldogs headed to state.

Football

Maybe I should write about the Bulldogs’ defense more often. Moffat County’s “D” responded Friday against visiting Rawlins, holding the Outlaws to 16 points.

But, it wasn’t the point total that was the most impressive, it was the individual performances that stood out to me.

Ethan Robinson was back to his pressure-the-quarterback ways, constantly harassing the Rawlins signal caller.

His constant motor freed up Jordan Wilson, Frank Archuleta, Justin Benedict and Todd Stewart to make big plays.

Offensively, quarterback Matt Linsacum was 0-for-4 passing, but the Bulldogs didn’t seem to need any type of aerial assault when considering the O-line pushed running backs Jasen Kettle and Halen Raymond over the century-mark.

Steamboat Springs visits the Bulldog Proving Grounds this week in both teams’ rivalry game.

The race for the postseason still is up in the air with the top three teams in the league pretty much decided. The bulldogs are in a three-way tie for fourth with Cortez and Eagle Valley, with the Cortez match-up looming on the horizon.

Friday’s victory was the team’s third win – tying last season’s overall total.

Volleyball

The volleyball team dropped three home games this week, but the losses came to the top-three teams in the league – Steamboat, Eagle Valley and Battle Mountain.

This team played better this past week than they have all season, unfortunately the turnaround came too late.

Adding junior Sara Kurz to the varsity roster is a move by coach Brianna Montgomery that I think should have come sooner.

Kurz is a beast at the net, giving this team something it lacked at the beginning: height.

With the way they’ve been swinging the ball lately, and having Kurz up front, look for the Bulldogs to win their last two regular season games this week.

MCHS hosts Palisade (7-4 WSL) and Delta (3-8 WSL).

Soccer

The Bulldogs rolled by Palisade over the weekend, reinforcing to fans and the rest of the league that they are a team to pay attention to in the future.

Moffat County and Palisade are the two youngest teams in the Slope, so when watching them play, you get a taste of what two years from now will be like.

Considering Moffat has owned Palisade this year, the future looks bright.

Two games are left in the season for this team until they pack it in for the winter.

Steamboat visits Thursday, and the Bulldogs travel to Roaring Fork on Friday in their season finale.

The Bulldogs won four games last year – a number they should be able to duplicate this weekend in coach Rusty Cox’s first season at the helm.

John Vandelinder can be reached at 875-1793 or jvandelinder@craigdailypress.com


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