Volcano Vista survives scare from Cibola

There was not much more the Cibola Cougars could have done Friday night to punch their ticket to the Class 6A prep football quarterfinals.

In the end, special teams failed Cibola, and extended Volcano Vista’s season.

The seventh-seeded Hawks, trailing by a field goal four minutes into the fourth quarter, blocked a Cibola punt, earned a first-and-goal, and senior Justus Foutz’s 2-yard touchdown run two plays later, with 7:07 to go, was the difference for Volcano Vista in a gritty 14-10 win over their District 1-6A rivals in the first round of the playoffs at Nusenda Community Stadium.

“That blocked punt won us the game,” said Foutz, who scored both Volcano Vista touchdowns, including a 4-yarder on the game’s first drive, just 3½ minutes after kickoff.

Volcano Vista (8-3) visits No. 2 Cleveland in next week’s 6A quarterfinals.

But the Hawks were on upset watch the entire 48 minutes.

The 10th-seeded Cougars took a 10-7 lead on the first play of the fourth quarter, with senior quarterback Hayes Baum, on a fourth-and-4 from the Volcano 34, keeping the ball, moving left, finding the edge and sprinting untouched down the far sideline for Cibola’s only touchdown of the night.

The Hawks had a long touchdown on the next drive erased by an illegal shift. They eventually punted. Cibola didn’t have much doing, and set up to punt itself, from its 31 on what proved to be the decisive play of the night.

“We needed something,” Volcano Vista coach Chad Wallin said.

A low snap caused operation issues, and a hurried attempt to get the punt off was blocked by Volcano Vista’s Wyatt Kuhlman. The Hawks recovered at the Cibola 8.

“I think what makes it worse is, we snapped and punted very well all year,” Cougars coach David Howes said. “That was our bugaboo last year. For 10 games, we didn’t have those issues, and it peeked its head out at the wrong time.”

Cibola (5-6) was beaten 35-7 by Volcano just six days earlier on this same field.

Much was different in the rematch. First, the Hawks lost standout running back D’Angelo Mitchell on the first series after he rolled his ankle. He didn’t return. In stepped Foutz.

“I was ready,” Foutz said. “Soon as I saw him limping, I was on the field.”

Next, Cibola had Howes on the sideline; he didn’t coach the Cougars in Week 11 after being ejected in Week 10 against Piedra Vista. Third, the Cibola defense, led by menacing middle linebacker Baum, simply played much better against the run Friday than last week.

“Last week,” Wallin said, “we got what we wanted (on the ground).”

Volcano Vista had three first downs on the game’s opening drive. The Hawks had only three other first downs over the final 44½ minutes, and two of those occurred in the first quarter.

Volcano Vista led 7-0 at halftime. None of Cibola’s six offensive series in the first half lasted more than three plays.

The Cougars finally got on the board to open the third quarter, with a drive that stalled at the Volcano Vista 13. Cibola kicked a 29-yard field goal.

It stayed that way until Baum’s exciting touchdown run.

Cibola did have two chances to take the lead. One drive ended with the Hawks sacking Terry Maes with a corner blitz, leading to a fumble recovered by Volcano Vista. The Cougars got the ball back again with only 70 seconds to go. Baum, who shares QB duties for Cibola, was not in the game for either of the final two drives as he suffered an ankle injury, Howes said. Maes was intercepted by Houston Brown near midfield to seal the victory.

Now the Hawks turn to powerhouse Cleveland, and the Storm handily beat Volcano in the regular season.

“We’re ready, man,” said Foutz. His cousin is Storm starting QB Jordan Hatch.