Heading into Week 5, it’s officially the mid-point of the high school football season and that means most teams have a pretty good idea of what to expect on the field.
Española Valley vs. Moriarty, 7 p.m. Friday
With the Pintos (3-1, 1-0 in District 1-4A) coming off a big win against Bernalillo, the time is now for the Sundevils (2-2, 0-1) to right the ship.
“We’re looking for a good turnaround,” Española coach Caleb Holbrook said. “Losses that early, there’s so much to learn. You don’t really break down a win as much as a loss. So we’re just grateful on our end that these losses are early. Fans who are following us, continue to trust the process.”
The Pintos run the Wing T offense with plenty of movement and motion, meaning it’s easy to get lost in all the confusion.
Moriarty will look to feed the ball to their speedy runners, Mario Romero and Mateo Manley-Griego, who each are about 5’9” and 140 lbs.
“They’re such a big, running team, a good running team,” Holbrook said. “We have to be disciplined on defense. We have to handle the gaps. It comes down to the defense doing their jobs. If we do our jobs, we should come out on top.”
The thing about the Pintos, however, is that they have a sneaky passing game when teams cheat too much into the box, he said.
“They’re going to take their shots when they feel they can,” Holbrook said. “I’ve put the challenge on defense. It’s going to be a time-of-possession battle. They’re going to want to control the clock, get ahead and stay there.”
McCurdy vs. Legacy Academy, 1 p.m. Saturday
The Bobcats (2-1) are making a switch in offensive philosophy from a relatively balanced attack to one that is tilted well toward the run.
That means expect to see a heavy dose of quarterback Julian Nino pounding the ball on the ground, and handing off to fleet and shifty backs JJ Vigil and Marius Sanchez in a swirling, Single Wing formation.
“I had no intentions of coming back this year, but the school had wanted to cancel games,” interim coach Mel Martinez, who was the offensive coordinator in previous years, said. “I’ve been with these kids for several years and I didn’t want to see that.”
Martinez stepped in for young coach De’Jor Curtis, who was in his first season as head coach and second with the program.
“I had coached coach DJ and gave him a lot of the playbook,” Martinez said. “I didn’t want to change everything overnight on these poor kids. Week one, I didn’t mess with the playbook. I used the plays that they had and was able to adapt them and steer them in a different direction. And game two, we added a few new plays and went mostly single wing.”
More of the same is on tap against the Silverbacks (3-1), who do have a balanced attack featuring quarterback Lorenzo Sedillo-Urban, who has thrown for 415 yards with four touchdowns and rushed for 162 yards.
Pojoaque Valley @ Hozho Academy, 6 p.m. Friday
In a game that was moved back a day from Thursday, Elks coach Zeke Villegas is glad for the extra day as his team has a number of players recovering from various ailments.
“We will be fully healthy, minus my son,” he said. “We’re going to be able to pass, run. I think it’s going to be good. Then we get a bye week after that. So we’re going to be able to see where we are then.”
Pojoaque (2-1) also will get back quarterback Josh Gonzales, who missed the last game against Dexter that was eventually called because of lightning, as well as the second half of the prior game against Los Alamos because of receiving two unsportsmanlike penalties.
Still, Villegas is expecting a tough one against the Wolves (2-2), who played a stout Legacy Academy squad quite well.
“They look like they could definitely be pretty tough,” Villegas said. “A lot tougher than last year when we beat them 54-0. We’ve got take care of business.”
Hozho is in just its third season and had no seniors last year, but have 12 this season.
“They were pretty big last year,” Villegas said of the Wolves. “They do like to pass. That’s what we’re going to be getting ready for. Defensively, they play pretty aggressive, but we just came off Los Alamos and Dexter, so I don’t think we’re going to see that, but we will see that in a couple of weeks against Robertson.”
Escalante vs. Melrose
7 p.m. Friday
Although the Lobos (3-1) are riding a three-game winning streak, coach Carlos Casados knows his squad has a tussle on his hands against the defending champion Buffaloes (2-2).
“This will be our toughest opponent so far,” he said. “A lot of game planning has to go into the defense because they are so versatile on the offensive side of the ball.”
They also have one of their top players from a year ago, senior running back Jaxon Odom, back for the first time this season.
“He’s a key part of their offense,” Casados said.
In the game last year in Melrose, the Buffaloes won 52-0 as part of undefeated season in which they outscored opponents by a whopping 652-216.
“We have to clean up our blocking schemes this week and then I think we can use our run game against these guys,” he said. “We executed the run game in the offense really well in the second half against Dove Creek.”