An early test of the Grants High School Pirate football team occurred this past Friday when the powerful St. Pius Sartans came to the Port of the Pirates.
Heading into the August 29 match, the NMOT Sports coaches poll which came out three days earlier had St. Pius was ranked second and the Pirates were ranked fifth.
“I absolutely feel like we were ready to face one of the best teams in the state,” said GHS head football coach Steve Brown. “I think we were able to see that we can definitely play with them and anyone we will face down the road.”
The Pirates had a good start, putting the Sartans behind the 8-ball with a quick touchdown by Julian Fernandez,12, to put the Pirates up by six points with 8:16 left in the quarter. The extra point attempt was no good.
The Pirates led 6-0 at the end of the first quarter.
In the second quarter, St. Pius answered with a touchdown by Herschel Olloway Jr., 23, and the extra point to put them 76 over the Pirates.
Pirate quarterback Tristin Fernandez rushed seven yards on a quarterback keeper to score for the Pirates. The Pirates went to running back Joe Clawson for the two extra point conversion to put the Pirates up 14-7.
Sartan wide receiver Curtis Flakes,1, with 7:51 left in the quarter, ran a 60-yard punt return to score a touchdown. The extra point was good for a tie ball game at 14-14.
With 3:43 left on the clock Olloway had his second touchdown of the night, a three yard run and two point conversion was no good making the halftime score 19-14 with the Sartans in the lead.
“At halftime we preached about not coming out as we did the week before,” said Brown. “I like the way we come out of the locker room.”
St. Pius went on to score two more touchdowns in the second half, extending their lead to 34 while the Pirates mustered a touchdown late in the fourth quarter off another quarterback keeper by Fernadez.
“Again, a couple of big mistakes on our part really set them up for success,” said Brown as he summarized the game. “We had a couple of major breakdowns on special teams—which led to two of their scores.”
Brown concluded by stating, “We have to learn to stop beating ourselves— we will continue to improve on that.”
Brown praised his team for containing Olloway’s explosiveness, “I’m happy with how our defense played overall,” said Brown. “We held him to about 100 yards rushing— yes—that’s quite a few yards—consider that he put up 270 yards against West Mesa in a prior game,” said Brown.
“Offensively, I think for the second week in row, we moved the ball well and if not for some self-destruction on our part—the game could have gone differently.”
Coach Brown and his Pirates have to regroup quickly as they travel to Dexter this upcoming Friday for their next game. Dexter is a 3A team, but they are a powerful 3A team scoring 50+ points in each of their first two games.
“Dexter lost last year in the 3A state title game—that was their only loss,” said Brown. “It will be another tough task for us—but the team is still bitter about the loss to Pius and we are anxious to bet back in the win column,” said Brown.
His traveling motto for this long trip to southern New Mexico is “Opportunities,” and “taking advantage” of them.
Game time is 6 pm at Dexter High School, September 5.
Cibola County Sports Wrap-Up
The Lady Pirate volleyball team is 2-1 after defeating Miyamura 3-2 (21-19, 17-25,19-25, 2518,12-15). The Lady Pirates will host Gallup (3-1) on Tuesday, September 2.
The GHS boys’ soccer team is 0-4 after losing to Miyamura 3-1. Freshman Roberto Arredondo scored the sole goal for the Pirates.
The Lady Pirates soccer team is 1-6 after a recent tournament where they lost to East Mountain 9-0, defeated Pojoaque Valley 5-3 and then lost to Portales 4-0.
The Laguna-Acoma Hawks football team is 11 after losing to Legacy Academy 47-8 in the season opener in August and then defeating Zuni 40-14 the following game. They will travel to Santa Fe Indian School (1-1) this Friday for their third game of the season.
The L-A volleyball team is 1-1 and will host Wingate (0-1) on September 10.