Snarling at the chance to avenge a bitter loss at home to Montezuma-Cortez earlier this season, the Wolverines, via sophomore Colton Fine's eighth-minute goal on a Finlay Marshall throw-in, served swift notice Tuesday evening they had no intentions of playing one second past regulation time.

"I think that the first goal.really put us in a different mood," sophomore Tilden Berriman said, alluding to the team's 7-nil home loss to Alamosa three days earlier. "Really got us going."

Defending their home turf, however, the Panthers quickly got going and equalized in the 10th minute, with speedy Manuel Martinez pressuring Bayfield sophomore defender Shea Marx all the way to the post behind junior keeper Austin Bushnell and somehow getting the ball over the goal line.

Nearly 70 minutes, each a battle, still remained in the 3A Southwestern League showdown. For every BHS success, M-CHS seemed to counterstrike rapidly and in the end held off the win-starved guests 5 to 3.

"I thought the boys played well," Fine said. "The first half we moved the ball like we wanted; we did not let it go. And we might have had a couple slip-ups, but that did not reflect the game. We played like we wanted to."

Freshman Berman Abdallah-Boehm's back-post score in the 31st, assisted by Marshall, not only canceled Martinez's go-ahead in the 28th but also resurrected the squad's initial confidence as the match's pace re-accelerated.

Fueled by that fact, Martinez wasted little time swiping back a 3-2 advantage-finishing a breakaway after running onto a long pass from midfielder Kolby Waltman in the 33rd-which held into intermission.

Close with multiple tries during the first half, Berriman finally beat Montezuma-Cortez goalie Nate Baker with a left-footed liner in the 63rd, after Bushnell's spectacular leaping, one-handed denial of Skylar Yarbrough in the 57th and subsequent snare of a Martinez header in the 60th fully reinforced Bayfield's resolve.

"I mean, the worst type of goal to get scored on is definitely a header," said Bushnell, between the pipes in Chad Winkler's stead, "and as soon as I see that coming.I go, 'Please come straight to me!' It was really scary."

"I'm not going to lie," Bushnell said. "The wait was painful, just slightly, and I didn't really like not being able to play at all on varsity, but now that I'm back it feels great," he continued. "So I'm hoping to help this team out a lot."

"Us just keeping continuously scoring back.that really brought our game up a lot," Berriman said. "Our shots quadrupled in number, and our passing.had more connections, and I think that really opened up the field."

But in totaling-unofficially-more shots (21 to 19) and shots on frame (16-13) the Panthers (2-8, 2-6 SWL) were at last able to douse the visitors' fire with Jesus Ruiz's 77th-minute goal and Andrew Laymon's follow-up in the 78th. Both were assisted by Martinez, who never seemed to be far from the ball.

Up next, BHS (0-9, 0-6) will look for payback at Alamosa (5-4, 4-3) this afternoon, then hustle home to welcome Crested Butte to Wolverine Country Stadium Saturday morning for an 11 a.m. start.

"Well we know how Alamosa plays and we know how Crested Butte plays," said Berriman, "so I think we can prepare ourselves more for that. It's going to be a fun two games."

"I just can't wait," Bushnell (17 total saves) said. "I hope it's going to be an exciting two games, and I hope we win them both!"