GRANTS, N.M. – On Friday September 11, the 10th-ranked Pirate football team took on Rio Grande at “The Port,” and like the weather that night, rained points on their opponents in a 47-6 victory.
The Pirates started this game hot, forcing a four and out on the Ravens’ first offensive drive. When Grants (2-1 overall) got the ball, Julian Fernandez picked up his first of three touchdowns on the night, and Colin Lundstrom followed with the extra kick, putting the Pirates up 7-0. Another touchdown run by Lundstrom made the score 13-0 going into the second quarter, and the Pirates were able to score two more touchdowns, on runs by Rey Chavira before going into half with a 27-0 advantage.
The Pirates found the endzone three times in the second half, two of them being rushing touchdowns by Fernandez, and the final nail in the coffin was a touchdown throw from freshman quarterback Atanacio Gallegos to Ryan Rael from 25 yards out to end the game.
The Ravens (1-2 overall) finally found the endzone but the damage was done.
“We did really well against Rio Grande,” Chavira said. “We did have a couple of errors during the game but overall we looked good and kept our focus on point from the start to the finish.” The senior captain had himself a good night overall, rushing for 89 yards and two touchdowns on 14 attempts. He also had some good plays on the defensive side of the ball.
Overall, the Pirates rushed for six touchdowns on the night and ran for 320 yards, and three different running backs were able to find the endzone. Fernandez ran for three touchdowns and 198 yards on 18 carries. Lundstrom, a sophomore, had 48 rushing yards and one touchdown on the night.
“I feel like we did well because we worked out this entire week on the schemes and what they were going to pull,” offensive lineman Dominic Riley said. “It wasn’t really different from past games, because there’s always things to fix and improve,” but we dominated.”
DeVargas also had a great game, getting to the quarterback multiple times and getting a few tackles in the backfield.
The Pirates are now set to play the Manzano Monarchs on Friday, September 18 at home in their second district match up. The Monarchs are currently 1-3 and coming off a loss.
“The things we’re looking for is their defense,” Riley said. “They have a strong and fast defensive end and they’ve got good linebackers that can make reads.”
“For their offense, they run traps a lot, and overall it’s just the running backs and wide receivers to look for. This won’t be easy for us.”
Stay tuned for more from the GHS football team.