The Grants High School pirate football team fresh off a scrimmage with 2A Santa Rosa is headed to Gallup this Friday to take on the 5A Miyamura Patriots in their opening game of the 2025 season.
When asked about the team’s performance at Santa Rosa GHS head football coach Steve Brown indicated that it “went well” and “saw a lot of good things.”
“Both of our quarterbacks were very successful running the offense,” said Brown.
Brown was referring to Tristin Fernandez, a senior and fellow senior Deandre Chavez who have been sharing the quarterbacking role.
“They were able to hit multiple targets all over the field,' said Brown.
Brown was also pleased with the running game, “All 3 of our running backs were able to hit the creases and get north and south quickly— -we averaged 12 yards a carry on the ground and found ourselves in the end zone quite a bit.”
Commenting on the defense Brown said, 'Defensively we made a few mistakes—we will work to clean that up.”
The team is complete according to Brown with 60 players who played and accumulated only 1 penalty. “That (penalties) was a glaring problem from last year that we have worked hard to correct,” said Brown.
Onto the season opener with Miyamura.
“We are getting ready for a very physical and fast defense that can give us fits if we don’t execute the way we know we can,” said Brown of the upcoming contest.
“They like to blitz from multiple spots on every play so our offensive line will have to be sound and our quarterbacks will have to be mobile and able to throw the ball quickly off the snap,” said Brown.
Brown emphasized that the Pirates will have to use speed to be successful and that will be crucial in offense and defense. Miyamura has a quarterback that can “sling it” according to Brown and the defensive coverage will have “to be on point.” Brown was referring to number 1, “Salid Rashid, a senior quarterback for Miyamura.
“Overall, I’m confident we cannot only compete but can come out with the “W” but it won’t be easy.” said Brown.
“This battle will be for I-40 bragging rights,” concluded Brown.
The Pirates last year defeated Miyamura 3420. The Pirates will play the Patriots away on Friday, August 22nd at 7:00pm.