McCurdy bounced back from its humbling 36-point loss Sept. 26 to Pojoaque with a 43-0 defeat of the Navajo Prep Eagles Oct. 10 at home.
“We’re very excited to have the team go out after all that and perform the way they did,” McCurdy coach Eric Vigil said.
The Bobcats showed no rust from the two-week layoff as Louie Martinez returned the opening kickoff 85 yards for a touchdown. Ron DeVargas’ extra point gave McCurdy a 7-0 lead just 15 seconds into the game.
After the Bobcats recovered an Eagles’ fumble deep in Navajo Prep territory, Martinez had the Bobcats back on the board just one minute later. He tossed a short shovel pass to Jedidiah Cordova for an eight-yard touchdown to make the score 14-0.
The Bobcats led 22-0 by the end of the first quarter after adding two points on a safety and seven more on a Martinez rushing touchdown.
Martinez, McCurdy’s starting quarterback, moved over to running back in the second quarter, and Josh Lovato took over at quarterback for McCurdy. Lovato handed off to Martinez for McCurdy’s next score; the quarterback-turned-running back swept left end for a 15-yard touchdown.
“Louie’s a tremendous runner, and we moved him to the slot at times,” Vigil said. “We wanted to give a bit of a different look.”
Cordova finished the scoring in the first half with a 10-yard touchdown run that gave McCurdy a 36-0 lead.
The Bobcats scored the game’s final touchdown on a 17-yard pass from Martinez to Ryan Bustos at 9:48 of the third quarter. McCurdy’s reserves finished the game.
In addition to piling up the points on offense, the Bobcats shut out the high-scoring Eagles. Navajo Prep had scored a total of 117 points in its previous two games. McCurdy picked off five Navajo Prep passes to thwart any Eagles’ threat to score.
“We talked about needing to redeem ourselves on pass defense after Pojoaque,” Vigil said. “We’re real excited about the outcome.”
Pojoaque gained 270 yards passing and scored three touchdowns in the first half in their blowout victory over McCurdy.
McCurdy improved to 4-2 on the season and travels Saturday to Questa to open District 1A play against the Wildcats.
The game has a 7 p.m. kickoff time.
“That’s a real unusual time for a game on Saturday,” Vigil said. “It looks like another week of battling distractions to try and get our first district win.”