For the first few minutes of McCurdy’s District 1A showdown Oct. 23 with the Clayton Yellowjackets, the Bobcats hung tough with the perennial football powerhouse.
The two teams traded touchdowns in the first four minutes. However, McCurdy began misfiring after an interception by Clayton snuffed out a Bobcat scoring threat. From there, Clayton blasted the Bobcats 61-13 to wrap up the district championship. McCurdy will meet Escalante Saturday to determine which school will get the District’s other automatic bid to the state playoffs (see related story).
“We had our opportunities and didn’t take advantage of them,” McCurdy coach Eric Vigil said. “We ran into a much better team that just kept coming at us.”
It didn’t take long for Clayton to score to start the game. Efe DeCosta scampered 46 yards for the game’s first touchdown at 9:08 of the first quarter, giving Clayton a 7-0 lead. On the ensuing kickoff, the Bobcats used a bit of ball-handling magic to befuddle Clayton. Lucas Akes took the kickoff at McCurdy’s 10-yard line, handed the ball to freshman Eric Vigil Jr., who then handed the ball to sophomore Louie Martinez.
The confused Clayton defenders couldn’t figure out who had the ball until Martinez had broken free and scampered down the sideline for a 90-yard touchdown return. Ron DeVargas’ extra point tied the score at 7-7 with 8:59 left in the first quarter.
Clayton responded by scoring 40 unanswered points in the first half to lead 47-7 at halftime, and the lead grew to 61-7 in the second half before McCurdy scored the game’s final touchdown on a pass from Josh Lovato to Ryan Bustos.
Clayton finished the regular season 7-1 overall and 3-0 in District 1A. The Yellowjackets were scheduled to finish the regular season Friday against Questa, but the Wildcats forfeited their remaining regular season games Oct. 21 due to a lack of players.
Clayton is the top-ranked team in Class 1A and will likely receive an opening round bye in the state playoffs.