Pojoaque seniors Michael Garcia and Rob Vigil were the heroes in the Elks’ season-opening win over Santa Fe Indian School last season.
Vigil caught a touchdown pass from Garcia with less than a minute to go to give the Elks’ a 22-18 win, one of only three they recorded last year.
In this year’s season-opener, held Aug. 29 in Pojoaque, the duo did not wait until the waning moments of the game to break the Braves’ hearts.
The Elks put on an awesome display of offense in the first quarter by taking a 35-0 lead and cruised to a 63-0 victory, the most lopsided win in Pojoaque history.
Garcia ran for 96 yards and three touchdowns, while Vigil caught five of Garcia’s 12 completions for 136 yards and three touchdowns.
“It is a different feeling,” Garcia said, remembering some of the blowout losses that Pojoaque has suffered during his career. “We’re not satisfied.”
The Elks scored on all eight of their first-half possessions. Junior Robert Ortiz scored Pojoaque’s first touchdown of the season on a four-yard run, and senior Tim Cowen booted the first of his nine extra points to give Pojoaque a 7-0 lead.
“We got it going early and jumped on them right away,” Pojoaque coach Quevin Redding said. “That’s what we wanted to do — throw the first punch.”
The second punch quickly followed the first when Pojoaque recovered an Indian School fumble on the Braves’ next possession. Garcia completed a 10-yard touchdown pass to Vigil with six minutes left in the first quarter. The Elks added three more touchdowns in the next six minutes to take a commanding 35-0 lead
In the second quarter, Ortiz scored his second touchdown and Vigil caught his third touchdown pass of the game to put Pojoaque ahead 49-0.
Garcia finished the first half by scoring on a 23-yard run. Cowen’s eighth extra point made the score 56-0 at halftime.
The Elks racked up 386 yards of total offense in the first half and held Indian School to just 20 net yards from scrimmage.
After the Elks scored on their first possession of the second half, Redding pulled his starters and the score remained 63-0 for the rest of the game.
“This is all on the kids,” Redding said. “We set it up so they could see what they had to do and they stepped up to the challenge.”
Pojoaque hosts Wingate Saturday. The Bears lost their season-opener, 42-14, to Window Rock, Ariz.