SAN JUAN COUNTY—Slow to stand Thursday evening after Bayfield sophomore Diego Cuddie’s left cleat clocked his chin while he smothered the fleet-footed enemy’s 61st-minute attempt, Bloomfield goalie Jacob Diaz knew he had to be the most focused Bobcat on the synthetic pitch if the home team was to take the teams’ 2026 opener.
Able to punch away Wolverine freshman Jonah Wolff’s threatening corner kick in the 73rd, Diaz again kept the lightning-delayed match deadlocked at 1-1 until Bayfield scored a late-game goal to take the 2-1 victory.
The guests remained the aggressor after Wolff’s punch, applying the sort of pressure which the ’Cats had put on Bayfield’s first-year keeper Hayden Robbins during the first half. Whereas last season’s NMAA District 1-4A champ had started the scoring with a fine third-minute header, last season’s CHSAA Class 3A Intermountain League runner-up would end it with a dramatic header following the 80 regulation minutes.
Awarded a corner kick after Diaz denied a counterattacking Cuddie, played in by Wolff’s perfect clearance pass paralleling the far sideline, with a highlight-reel diving deflection, Bayfield sophomore Hyker Heminger teed the ball up in the near-side corner to Diaz’s right and junior Reid Hoffman made no mistake redirecting the ball into the net.
“I just wanted to get a goal, or at least get our team in the lead—either (by) assisting or scoring … I was the happiest person alive,” Hoffman said.
Just enough time remained for Bloomfield to kick off, but nothing came of it and the Wolverines’ celebration of Hoffman’s goal more or less continued as what ended up being a four-hour test concluded beneath the venue’s activated lights.
“It was just an amazing match,” said Cuddie. “All preseason we were just going, going, going. People would go on runs and just kept conditioning, kept working and…we came here with a positive attitude. That’s what won us this game, and that’s what’s going to keep us winning games.”
Taking the action right to visiting Bayfield (1-0 overall) early, Bloomfield (0-1 overall) scored first when junior Gavin Griswold headed home a corner—from very nearly the same spot as Hoffman ultimately would in stoppage time.
“I’ve always appreciated rainy nights—just a personal preference,” Griswold said. “Starting off, we came out very strong. And it’s difficult to go through this, but it’s very important for the development of the team; quality…will come later. We’ll keep our heads up.”
Chasing down a booming goal kick taken by junior defender Colton Casillas, rather than Robbins, Cuddie equalized—only three minutes after Griswold’s strike—by going 1-v-1 with Diaz and netting Bayfield’s very first shot attempt this fall.
The Wolverines caught what ended up being a critical break when Bobcat junior Cameron Ford clanged a shot off Robbins’ near post in the 18th, and Robbins later left his line to stop Ford’s low attempt seconds before the tense first half ended.
“We were expecting to beat them (by) more,” Hoffman admitted. “But we definitely came in thinking that we can’t say we…were GOING to win; if we did, we were going to lose. So we came with a positive attitude, hard-working players and ended up finishing.”