Last week was homecoming week for Pagosa Springs High School, with the Pirate football team hosting Monte Vista last Friday night, Sept. 20, at Golden Peaks stadium for the team’s first home game of the year.
The Pirates defeated Monte Vista 28-6, improving their record to 2-1 on the season.
The first half ended scoreless with the Pirates generating momentum on their first couple of offensive drives, but stalling out due to penalties, coach Nathan Morales explained.
“We moved the ball well the first half,” Morales said. “Just had silly penalties.”
Morales took accountability for the Pirates’ penalties in the first half, explaining that most of the penalties were due to illegal shifts.
“I got to be more disciplined, get them ready. That’s on me,” he said.
The Pirates were able to move the ball down inside Monte Vista’s red zone with just under one minute left in the second quarter, but were unable to capitalize and turned the ball over on downs.
The Pirates received the ball to start the second half and were able to score on their first play from scrimmage, with Colton Lucero rushing for an 85-yard touchdown.
The Pirates converted the extra-point attempt, opening the scoring at 7-0 just 20 seconds into the second half.
“We didn’t do anything different,” Morales said in regard to changing anything at halftime in terms of strategy.
He mentioned that the team knew it could move the ball and “kind of just sat there for a little while” during halftime and, once it was time to come back out, Morales told the team, “Let’s go win the second half.”
Morales explained that there wasn’t much to change and that throughout the second half the Pirates “just kept doing what we were doing.”
The Pirates were able to score again in the third quarter with another long rushing touchdown from Lucero.
This time Lucero went for 65 yards, and the Pirates led 14-0 before the end of the third quarter.
Pagosa kept its momentum in the fourth quarter, racking up two more touchdowns before the night ended.
Morales commented on quarterback Creede Dozier’s performance saying, “He does a good job for us.”
He added that he expects Dozier to keep getting better as the season goes on.
“I thought he played well,” Morales said, highlighting Dozier’s 45-yard rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter that put the Pirates up 21-0.
“He’s the second weapon in the backfield that we have, and we’ll continue to use him,” Morales said.
Lucero scored his third touchdown of the night with about three minutes remaining in the fourth quarter, this time going for 47 yards.
The Pirates put up a total of 546 yards on offense, with Lucero leading the team in rushing with 360 yards and three touchdowns on 22 carries.
Jayton Ross had two carries on the night, going for 22 total yards.
Seth Ziegler also had two rushing attempts on the night, going for a total of 7 yards.
Dozier ended the night with a total of 63 rushing yards and one rushing touchdown on 13 carries.
The Pirates put up a total of 452 rushing yards as a team.
Dozier also threw for a total of 93 yards, completing five of 10 attempts.
Ziegler led the Pirates in receiving with a total of 59 yards on two receptions.
Ross and Jaxten Schiel each had one reception, each for 8 yards, and Bode Hubbard had one reception for 23 yards.
The Pirate defense tallied a total of 33 tackles on the night, with Ross and Ziegler leading the team each with six solo tackles.
The Pirate defense also forced three turnovers on the night with interceptions from Dozier and Schiel, and a fumble recovery by Tommaso Nigro.
Gavin Carter converted four of four extra-point attempts on the night.
The Pirates almost held on for a shutout victory, but gave up a touchdown with just over a minute left when Monte Vista’s quarterback threw for a 50-yard touchdown on a fourth and long, bringing the score to 28-6.
Morales commented that the Pirates will get better at finishing out games, mentioning he was glad that Monte Vista’s scoring drive did not affect the outcome of the game.
“We would’ve liked the shutout,” Morales said, noting Monte Vista ran a good play and stuff like that happens in football.
“They [the Pirates] played well for four quarters. One play doesn’t define us,” he said.
Monte Vista was able to recover an onside kick after scoring, but failed to move the ball down field, with Dozier intercepting Monte Vista’s quarterback, effectively ending the game.
The Pirates kneeled a couple of times to run the clock out and come away with the victory.
Morales commented on Lucero’s performance, mentioning that he is “a great running back.”
“He’s a special athlete,” Morales added.
Morales also spoke about Nigro’s performance on defense.
“He does a good job for us. He’s fast, he’s physical, he’s strong, he’s smart. We’re glad to have him,” the coach said.
Morales also noted the Pirates enjoyed playing at home.
“We love playing at home. I think we’ve gotten a lot of support and we love it. We want a lot of people here ‘cause we feed off of our crowd and it really helps us. So the more people we have in the stands, the better, for sure,” Morales said.
The Pirates are currently ranked eighth out of 41 teams in the Rating Percentage Index (RPI) for the 2A division.
The Pirates will be at home again tomorrow night, Friday, Sept. 27, taking on the Elizabeth Cardinals.
The Cardinals enter the matchup with a record of 3-1 and are ranked seventh in the state’s 2A division.
clayton@pagosasun.com
