Although Pojoaque Valley football went winless in the tough District 2-3A, the Elks showed enough during the non-district portion of the schedule to earn the program’s first playoff berth since 2014.
Now the team is looking to win its first playoff game since 2013 as it entered the third season under coach Zeke Villegas with a unit riding significant momentum.
“What I saw this summer, we’re so much farther ahead than past summers,” he said. “We were able to do things much earlier. We installed things that we didn’t install until the week of two days last year. The football knowledge they have is a lot deeper this year because a lot of them have been in the system this whole time and that’s prepared them for being here.”
What’s more, the team’s numbers throughout the summer have been creeping up, giving Villegas and the players optimism that the team is prepared to take the next step by going into the playoffs this season.
In addition, the Elks will bring back about nine starters each on offense and defense, with many key contributors returning.
One of the areas that Villegas tried to upgrade was the passing game under second-year quarterback starter, junior Joshua Gonzales (5’11”, 170 lbs.), who made major advances this summer.
“Our passing game looked really great this summer,” Villegas said. “It made me rethink how we were going to run our offense. From what I saw this summer, it made me think we’re going to be able to pass a lot more than we did the past two years. I felt like our run was very dominant. Our passing game just wasn’t there. Josh Gonzales wasn’t ready yet. This year, it’s a lot different. We’ve seen just a huge improvement.”
Last season, Gonzales only attempted 50 passes, completing 21 for 422 yards and one touchdown. He did run for 303 yards with eight TDs so he should provide a nice run-pass option, especially with the coach’s son, junior runningback and defensiveback Jonah Villegas (5’4”, 125 lbs.) taking a bigger role both as a back and as a receiver. He rushed for 731 yards and seven scores last season.
Adding to the backfield, senior runningback D’Marcus Rodriguez (5’10”, 175 lbs.) is a bulldozer up the middle and had 767 rushing yards last season with five touchdowns.
Likewise, senior wide receiver Joaquin Baca (6’0”, 145 lbs.) and junior wide receiver Jaden Leyba-Moya (5’4”, 125 lbs.) are both expected to help the aerial attack.
Junior offensive and defensive lineman Michaelangelo Leapingwolf (6’0”, 245 lbs.) will anchor both lines.
The players have been excited to get back after it, Gonzales said.
“A lot of us are motivated even more,” he said. “After we lost last year (in the playoffs), we got the goal that we wanted to get, but this year, we just want to go farther. We learned that hard work definitely will pay off. Our first year, we didn’t make it that far but we’re a lot more motivated. We learned how to get there and what it’s going to take to go even farther.”
After losing to No. 7 Hatch Valley 28-20 in the playoffs, the Elks came away hungry, Leyba-Moya said.
“It was cool and nice to finally make it to the playoffs,” he said. “I enjoyed going and the atmosphere and stuff. The whole team was all pumped, but we should have won that game. We got in our heads. This year, we’re definitely prepared. Our expectations are to bring each other up. And going to state. We plan to have a way better year.”
That playoff loss will make the Elks better in the long run, Rodriguez said.
“I think we’re just a lot smarter,” he said. “We look back on that film and see all the mistakes that we did. Now we’re finally fully into the playbook. Last year, we ran about 20%. Our chemistry is built up really well and we have the whole playbook down so we should be a lot more lethal.”