Monticello volleyball gets a couple wins

After a tough and winless preseason against non-region opponents, it seems the Monticello High School volleyball team was excited to enter Region 16 play. The Lady Bucks went 2-0 last week, cruising past North Sevier and Duchesne.

On Tuesday, September 17 Monticello traveled to Salina to face North Sevier in a battle of 0-4 teams. The Lady Bucks won the first set 26-24 only to drop the second set 25-22. 

MHS played very well in the third and fourth sets, pounding the Lady Wolves 25-15 and 25-18 to take the region win and first win of 2019.

Two nights later, on Thursday, September 19, the Duchesne Lady Eagles (3-4, 0-1) visited the MHS gymnasium for another Region 16 match. Monticello dominated, coasting to a 25-13, 25-18, 25-18 straight-set win. 

The Lady Bucks (2-4, 2-0) continue Region 16 play on Friday, September 27 when they travel to Coalville to take on the North Summit Lady Braves (4-10, 2-0). 

The next night, the girls head east to Altamont to play the Lady Longhorns (1-9, 0-2) in another region match.

Golf

With a trip to the state tournament on the line, the Monticello boys golf team teed it up on Monday, September 16 against the other Region 16 teams at the Carbon County Country Club in Price.

Per region rules, the scores of the final region match were doubled, and when the dust settled, Monticello placed fourth overall but scored well enough to qualify for state.

For the last match, Gunnison Valley claimed the region title after shooting a 384. North Summit finished second with a 399, and North Sevier got third with a 404.

Altamont claimed fourth at the last region meet but finished behind Monticello in the overall standings after shooting a 415.

Monticello finished fifth at the last match, but fourth overall after shooting a team score of 427 for the day. Duchesne finished last overall in the region with a 446 final team score.

Individually, Boston Freestone shot a team-low 93 followed by Breckyn Hoggard’s round of 99. Cory Bunker shot a 113 followed by Bailey Walker’s 117. Kyle Leavitt shot a 122 and Garret Larsen a 124. 

With Region 16 play in the books, the Bucks can now focus solely on the last match of the season when they will travel to the 2A Utah State Golf Championships held at the Rose Park Golf Course in Salt Lake City September 24-26.

Tuesday will be a practice round with a qualifier on Wednesday and final play on Thursday.

Cross country

The Monticello cross country teams endured their heaviest road week of the season last week when they traveled to Coalville on Wednesday, September 18 for a Region 16 race against North Summit, then to Pagosa Springs, CO for the Pagosa Springs Cross Country Challenge on Saturday, September 21.

Against North Summit, the Monticello boys ran well and captured a team victory with Alan Pettit edging out Cory Bunker for the individual win. The Lady Bucks finished second as a team with Adri Bird and Lily Long finishing second and third.

In Pagosa Springs, the teams survived the 5 a.m. bus trip to Colorado to run at Cloman Park near the airport.

The boys claimed the overall team title, edging out the host Pirates by five points. Cory Bunker won the meet with a time of 18:15, beating teammate Alan Pettit who claimed second with a time of 18:47.

Eric Montague finished 12th overall with a time of 21:15. Bailey Walker finished 17th and Josh Wheeler 26th with times of 21:54 and 22:54 respectively. 

Other Buck finishers were Jalen Bradford (24:37), Dawson Atwood (24:39), and Jacob Johnson (25:55).

Monticello finished third in the girls race. Lily Long won the meet with a time of 22:30. Kennedy Brewer claimed 12th place with a time of 25:36, and Serra St. Clair came in 20th with a 24:57.

Halle Morrison came home 34th with her time of 30:01. Hailey Gillette closed out the girls’ scoring with a 46th place finish and a time of 34:03. Kaitlin Morrison ran a 36:38 to finish 51st.

On a side note, Adri Bird traveled to Idaho on Saturday, September 21 to run in the 45th annual Bob Firman Invitational at Eagle Island State Park just west of Boise.

The meet boasted 5,200 runners from nine states. Adri placed 10th overall in the freshman race of 185 girls with a time of 20:20.

Football

To say the MHS football team struggled on the road for the last two weeks would be an understatement. The Buckaroos were bludgeoned by the Millard Eagles two weeks ago in Fillmore 56-0. This past Friday the Duchesne Eagles blanked the Bucks 62-0 in a 2A North matchup.

Coming into the game, Monticello was nursing wounds after suffering their first loss of the year and losing some key players. Duchesne was feeling good after whacking North Summit 41-14 in Coalville.

It was a tough start for Monticello. They were unable to move the ball and gave up three rushing touchdowns to trail 20-0 after one period of play.

As bad as the first quarter was, the second was worse for the Bucks. Duchesne added five more rushing TDs in the frame, racing to a 55-0 halftime lead.

With a running clock in the second half, Monticello put together one decent drive to the Eagle 20-yardline but were unable to get any closer. Duchesne added another fourth quarter rushing touchdown to close out the win 62-0.

The obvious story of the game was the Eagles’ running attack. They carried the ball 33 times for 488 yards and nine touchdowns. Senior Gavin Davis led the way with 169 yards on five carries and three TDs.

The Buckaroos only mustered 57 total yards of offense (126 through the air and -69 on the ground).

This week, Monticello (4-1, 1-1) will enjoy a week off to heal and regroup to get ready for a crucial 2A North battle with North Summit (3-3, 2-1) in Coalville on Friday, October 4.