’Cats cap Homecoming Week with 55-0 victory
Having already piled up 33 demoralizing points during a first-half domination not really unexpected, Ignacio’s Homecoming victory Friday night, Sept. 29, could have been summarized in the very first drive after intermission, when the week’s chosen royalty were presented.
Junior D.J. Hendren returned visiting Trinidad’s kickoff for better than 30 yards, but a penalty during the run brought the Bobcats back to their own 28 with 11:40 left in the third quarter. Sophomore Lincoln deKay then blasted through the middle of the line for a big gainer, but a holding penalty again wiped out most of his progress. The spot of the foul meant deKay netted seven yards, but IHS was pushed back to the 25.
Sophomore quarterback Zane Pontine then attempted to move things along aerially, and despite throwing incomplete was bailed out by – you guessed it – a penalty; the pass-interference infraction against THS advanced the ’Cats to the 40. His right arm reloaded, Pontine then let fly another bomb … and this time connected, hitting Devante Montoya in stride some 30 yards downfield, with the speedy senior’s legs then carrying him the rest of the way for a crushing 60-yard touchdown.
The entire series, start to finish, had used a whopping 28 seconds of game time.
“I saw D running down the sideline and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s wide open!’ Their corner was four yards away, so I chucked it – and I honestly thought it was going out of bounds,” Pontine said. “Somehow he caught it and scored; it was pretty cool.”
“You want to just run down there, give your boy props,” said senior Rylan Maez, who actually caught more Trinidad passes (2) than throws from his own QB (1). “Man, that was awesome! It just kept us going, kept us rolling.”
Junior Charlie Pargin’s point-after kick, for the second time in the teams’ 1A South Central conference-opener, clanged off the crossbar, leaving the score standing 39-0 … and the black-clad ’Cats all too happy to prolong an imminent mercy-rule victory – fully knowing that their next two games, and three of their final four will be away from IHS Field.
“Cortez … it was sloppy, but this game was a little less,” said senior center Cruz Martinez, reflecting on how Ignacio’s quality 24-0 home loss the previous week to Montezuma-Cortez set the ’Cats up to not only face the Miners, but upcoming opponents such as Center. “Hopefully going forth we can finally put it all together fully; we’ve proved we’re not the same team as last year. We can really get it done.”
Slapped with two unsportsmanlike-conduct personal fouls on the ensuing kickoff, Trinidad began what ended up being their second of only two credible drives at their own 13 with 11:11 left. Able to actually gain a first down via two runs moving the football forward to the 25, and soon able to reach the 33 – via an eight-yard pass from Isaiah Moreno (one of THS’ 19 listed freshmen) to sophomore Matthew Garduno – the Miners’ night then realistically ended two snaps later as IHS freshman Stephen Habel sacked Moreno for a six-yard loss on fourth-and-two.
Set up on offense at Trinidad’s 27 with 8:00 still to go, Ignacio needed just two brutal deKay runs to again find the end zone, at last enacting running-clock rules with 7:27 left in the frame. Pontine plunged the two-point conversion across the goal line, increasing IHS’ advantage to 47-0 (the luckless Miners entered the game giving up better than 45 per contest).
Still not satisfied, per se, the Bobcats (2-3 overall, 1-0 South Central) quickly regained possession when Maez intercepted Moreno on THS’ second play of their next drive. Returning the pick 22 yards, Maez set Ignacio up at the Miners’ 5 with 3:27 (and counting) left. Back-to-back penalties against the ’Cats pushed them back to the 15, but three plays later Hendren carried around left end for 11 yards to score what ended up the blowout’s final touchdown.
Pontine again carried in the conversion, inflating the margin to its eventual 55-0 size with 0:05 still left in the third. The Bobcats’ defense then polished things off in the fourth, with sophomore Gabe Archuleta blowing up Miner junior Andres Romero after an over-the-middle reception and deKay recovering the fumble at the Ignacio 42 with 7:58 left in regulation.
Six consecutive carries by freshman Brandon Blevins then gained 29 yards, but his seventh run resulted in a seven-yard loss back to THS’ 36 … and a turnover-on-downs with 4:02 remaining. To their credit, the Miners very nearly capitalized; senior running back Corbin Popoff gained 26 yards on two carries, and Moreno then took a read-option keeper down to IHS’ 20, only to then lose the ball while juking a defender.
Pargin recovered at the 23 with just 1:58 left, and Pontine (unoff. 5-of-7 passing, 141 yards, 0 INT; 7-24 rushing, 2 TD) was then able to kneel twice in ‘victory formation’ and kill off the final seconds.
“We even got a break … to enjoy the last Homecoming game together and have some fun,” Martinez, named Homecoming King at halftime, said of how IHS’ regulars were mostly benched during the fourth quarter. “Hard work pays off, and that was just us reaping the benefits.”
Recording TD runs of 39 and 11 yards during the second quarter, Hendren totaled three scores as part of a 8-carry, 145-yard effort on the ground. With senior Nate Hendren unavailable, deKay racked up 98 yards on 13 tries with two TDs, and Blevins 24 yards on eight.
“The run game … it was perfect; the running backs did everything they were supposed to,” said Hendren. “But I have to give it up for the linemen. The linemen really did block for us, opened up nice holes for us and we got a lot of really good runs.”
Montoya finished with three receptions for 91 yards, Maez caught one pass for 29 and Archuleta one for 21.
“Cortez … even though we lost to ’em we still played a decent game,” Pontine said. “But there were still a lot of mistakes in that game and I feel like we made up for a lot of those errors this week. Our line did an amazing job; they really set it up.”
Defensively, sophomore Aven Bourriague intercepted Moreno to set up the Bobcats’ first score (a 5-yard Pontine carry, with 4:49 left in the first quarter), but had a second pick negated in the second quarter due to a pass-interference penalty against IHS. Five plays later, as fortunate THS (0-5 overall, 0-1 South Central) looked to sustain its lengthiest drive, Maez picked off Moreno at IHS’ 15 and returned it six yards. Five plays and 2:22 later, Ignacio completed a 79-yard counterstrike with Hendren scoring from 11 yards out. He then caught a two-point pass from Pontine, giving the ’Cats a 33-0 halftime lead.
“Coach always says, if it’s not the end of the last game there’s always a game to battle back,” said Maez. “And we got our get-back this week. Practiced hard all week and gave it our all tonight.”
Up next, Trinidad will host Monte Vista at 6 p.m. Friday, October 6, while Ignacio travels to Center for a 7 p.m. start. MVHS (3-2, 1-0) destroyed Del Norte (1-4, 0-1) 62-18 on the 29th, but CHS (0-5, 0-1) remained winless after losing 43-6 that night at Centauri (3-2, 1-0).