Prep Football Roundup

The Pintos (3-0) relentless march up the rankings continued last week with a 54-0 win over Newcomb as the defense got interception returns for touchdowns from Albert Esparza and Antonio Cano and a returned punt from Isaiah Quintana for another score.

Those things aren’t easy to come by so any time you can get those kinds of things, it’s definitely good,” said coach Gabe Romero.

The easy road win pushed Moriarty to fourth in the NMOT rankings with a home game tonight against Grants (1-2).

“They’re pretty good,” Romero said of the Pirates. “Their quarterback is very good at getting out of the pocket and making some long throws. Offensively, they’re very aggressive on defense. They get a lot of guys to the ball. We’re going to have to get to our blocks and stick on our blocks.”

Estancia

Although the Bears (0-3) remained winless after a 34-19 loss on the road to a very good 3A team in Socorro, the road gets no easier as they now play host to an Escalante (1-2) team that knows how to win championships.

“I thought we did a lot of really good things,” coach Stewart Burnett said of the game against the Warriors. “We ran the ball well. The defensive execution is getting better and better. We did a much better job of protecting the ball.”

Joshau Calhoon again put on a show with 223 yards rushing, but, perhaps even more important was that fullback Pablo Regalado bulled his way through the middle for 98 tough yards, helping open up the outside.

But now is the time the Bears have to pick it up a notch, he said.

“We’re ahead of where we were last year in a lot of ways,” Burnett said. “But now we enter into a time where we have to shift gears into the next part of the schedule. Now we’re into must-win games. These are almost all going to be like playoff games for us.”

Mountainair

The Mustangs (1-1) got into the win column with a 50-0 win over Ramah that pleased coach Robert Zamora

“We did a lot better,” he said. “We improved a lot from week one, just on the basic stuff. If we can keep improving like that, we will be in the mix.”

Now Mountainair heads to Animas (0-2), which is much better than its record would indicate, he said.

The Panthers present a strong challenge in that they’re both big and quick.

“They’re fast and a well-balanced team,” Zamora said. “If we can keep them contained and bottled up on defense, I feel very good about our ability to move the ball and be really productive on the offense.”