8-Man Football: Haxtun Repeats as State Champions
By Tracy Renck
PUEBLO – In the state championship rematch, the song remained the same.
For the second year in a row, Haxtun muscled past Akron to win the 8-man state football championship.
The latest victory for Haxtun was a 54-28 Saturday night at the ThunderBowl on the Colorado State University-Pueblo campus.
This was Haxtun’s 10th state football title in school history. It now has championships in 1975, 1981, 1989, 1990, 1991, 2000, 2004, 2001, 2024 and 2025. Earlier this season, Akron beat Haxtun 28-24 on Oct. 10.
“I will be completely honest with you when we lost to them earlier in the season, we got complacent,” Haxtun head coach J.D. Stone said. “We said after that game they woke up a sleeping giant. We knew the team we had and they just had to prepare correctly.
“It feels great to get 10 state championships.”
A year ago, Haxtun claimed a 46-20 win over Akron in the 8-man state title game at Dutch Clark Stadium in Pueblo. The Bulldogs won their seventh 8-man state title last year.
Akron, meanwhile, was trying to win its eighth state championship and first since 2008.
The star of the game was Zach Statz. The two-way Haxtun standout scored five touchdowns and added three interceptions in the victory. He had 226 yards rushing.
Those numbers allowed Statz to be chosen as the National Football Foundation College Hall of Fame Colorado Chapter Most Outstanding Player.
“This is really special to get this award,” Statz said.
Haxtun made a statement on its opening drive, marching down the field and culminating with a 4-yard score by Statz.
At the 9:10 mark of the first quarter, the Bulldogs made the score 12-0 when quarterback Colin Cone sped through the Haxtun defense for a 36-yard score.
Akron answered with a 15-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Kolten Randel to Jace Curtis and the two-point conversion cut the deficit to 12-8.
Moments later, Haxtun turned the momentum tide when Cone lofted a pass over the middle to Statz and when an Akron defender tripped, Statz sprinted untouched into the end zone at the 2:29 mark of the first quarter. That TD gave the Bulldogs an 18-8 advantage.
Curtis stepped into the spotlight again for Akron racing around the left corner on a sweep for a 12-yard score. The two-point conversion failed, putting the score at 18-14 at 10:49 of the second quarter.
Once again, Haxtun answered when Cone lofted a 9-yard scoring pass to Statz to make the score 24-14 in favor of the Bulldogs with 7:56 to go until half.
Then, Curtis took a short pass in the flat and zoomed in for a 59-yard score to get the Rams within 24-20 just over two minutes later.
The scoring barrage continued as Statz zig-zagged his way for a 63-yard TD at 4:59 of the second. The two-point conversion was good, giving the Bulldogs a 32-20 edge.
The intermission didn’t cool Haxtun’s offense down at all, as Statz burned up the middle for a 40-yard TD. The two-point conversion made it 40-20 with just over a minute gone in the third quarter.
After recovering a fumble, Akron clawed back in the game when Randel bullied in from three yards out. He tossed the two-point conversion pass to Curtis, cutting the deficit to 40-28 with 4:11 to go in the third.
Unfortunately, they had no answer for Statz. The shifty running back scored for the fourth time as he blazed down the field untouched for a 38-yard score. That made the score 46-28 in favor of the Bulldogs with three minutes left in the third.
Statz put his skills on display moments later with an interception. Not bad for a player who had 214 yards rushing before the end of the third quarter.
“When we played Akron the first time we thought we were the big dogs and we were going to roll through them like we roll through everybody,” Statz said. “They popped us in the mouth and we didn’t do things we normally do and we lost. We just did things differently after that. We got a chance to play them again and we watched so much film and we tried to know everything they did.
“All that came to play and it showed up on the field. It feels absolutely amazing to win the state championship again.”
