The Grants High School Pirates Football Team offensively was unable to get on the scoreboard against a tough Monzano Monarchs defense who held them scoreless.
“It didn’t go as we wanted it to go,” said GHS head coach Gene Riedinger. “We started off strong, our first 4 drives, however, we had penalties.”
Manzano intercepted the ball in the first quarter with 11:55 left on the clock off a short pass from GHS quarterback Atanacio Gallegos who threw a 10 yard pass intercepted by Christian Chavez for a monarch pick six. Manzano had a bad snap on the point after attempt. 6-0 Monarchs.
“We started off passing, we threw it where we should not have,” said Riedinger In the 3rd quarter Manzano scored a second touchdown off a short pass and the two point conversion was good. 14-0 Monarchs.
Gallegos had 4 interceptions for the night.
Coach Riedinger and the offense are focusing on passing and adding a few new “wrinkles” in the offense this week to improve the offense.
“Manzano had a great defender number 22 linebacker, he was a big boy and he did well, he did get four 15 yard penalties,” said Riedinger.
“We have to be more aggressive and make some passes down the field,” said Riedinger.
One shining note to add is that the Pirates defense is ranked statistically number 1 in their district (District 4A-1). In four games they have only allowed 26 points.
“I’m very proud of our defense, we just need to get the offense going,” said Riedinger.
The Pirates drop to 2-2, 1-1 and will play district rival Valley (2-2, 2-0) on the road on September 25.
“It is a winnable game for us—if we execute we can win— we got to fire up the ball, maintain our block and complete some passes down the field,” said Riedinger of the upcoming game.
Manzano improves to 2-3, 2-1 and is 4th in district 1 4A followed by Grants who is 5th in the district. The top 3 of district 1 are Bloomfield at number 1, Valley at 2 and Espanola at 3.
The Laguna-Acoma football team is 1-4 after a 51-0 loss to Tularosa (4-1) on September 18.
The Hawks will play R aton (2-3) on September 25 on the road.
CIBOLA SPORTS ROUND-UP
The GHS volleyball team is 210 after a 3-0 loss to Valley (4-5) last week on September 19. The box score was 26-24, 25-23,25-18.
Next up for the lady Pirates is a make-up game on September 22 with Gallup (0-10). They will host Aztec (5-6) on September 26.
“The Valley game as a Saturday game and we have to learn to show up competitively,” said GHS head volleyball coach Kateri Chino. “We have to fix our little errors.”
The lady Hawks volleyball team is 4-3 and will play Navajo Pine (3-1) on September 29.
The GHS girls soccer team had a tough game on the road and los 5-0 loss to Taos. “We were supposed to play 3 games however we only played 1 team,” said GHS head girls soccer coach. “Our girls have improved–it turned out better than we assumed it would.”
Next up is the Pirates first district game and it is a tall order, the Hope Huskies (11-0) are ranked 10th in the nation. They play the Huskies on the road on September 22 then they will play Belen (0-910) at home onSeptember 24.
The lady Pirates drop to 2-8 heading into districts.
The GHS boys soccer team is 1-7-3 after a 8-0 loss to Taos (9-2) last week. They also start district play against Hope Christian (4-4) at home on September 22. The Pirates then play Belen (2-9-2) on September 24 at Belen.
The GHS boys and girls cross country teams both placed 3rd at the Sal Gonzales Jamboree held last weekend in Rio Rancho.