The Pojoaque Valley football players started to lose focus and became frustrated with themselves late in their week two game. But after their postgame huddle, their heads were held high, and they seemed confident.
“We still have something to prove,” said running back Josh Urisote. “The season’s not over.”
The Elks (1-1) were excited for their matchup against the defending state champion Bloomfield Bobcats (2-0), but fell behind quickly and lost 50-0 in a game that ended at halftime due to the mercy rule on Friday. Pojoaque players and coached mentioned a focus on conditioning to try to improve as they go through their season.
“It’s a long season, and at the end of the day, it’s just a bump in the road,” said head coach Zeke Villegas. “I felt that we did good at the beginning, and we kinda just fell off our gameplan a bit. But at the end of the day, it’s going to help us for the long run.”
Josh Urioste ran for 10 yards on the first play of the game. That was about as good as things would go for Pojoaque the whole game. They went backwards on their next three plays, false started, and punted short of midfield. Bloomfield methodically drove down the field, and scored to finish a seven-play 48-yard drive, helped by an offsides penalty on third down. Pojoaque punted, and Bloomfield again slowly drove down the field, with another offsides penalty helping Bloomfield on what would have been fourth-and-10.
Villegas pointed to a dropped interception on that drive, with Pojoaque down just 7-0, as a turning point that could have changed the game.
Bloomfield’s no-huddle offense made life difficult for Pojoaque. They were unable to substitute when they wanted, which resulted in penalties, and quickly they ran out of energy.
Pojoaque’s first pass attempt of the game, on their third drive, (after two dropbacks had resulted in sacks) ended in an interception, and soon another Bloomfield touchdown.
The Bobcats were up 21-0 by the end of the first quarter. Pojoaque fumbled on their first second-quarter play, forced a turnover on downs, then allowed another touchdown after a punt. Bloomfield added to their lead again, and then again on an interception returned for a touchdown, then scored again after blocking a punt.
“(Bloomfield) was a very good team, they had a lot of very good players,” Meloy said. “I know I made plenty mistakes. I know there was a lot that we could have done better, a lot more we could have capitalized on.”
Down 50-0 with less than 90 seconds remaining in the half, Pojoaque needed to score, and quickly, to avoid the game ending early on the mercy rule. Meloy had a strong run for a first down, but the Bobcats grabbed an interception, then kneeled for their final play.
“They’re a very aggressive team, and they’re very conditioned,” Meloy said. “I give them that. That’s all I’ll give them, though. Is they’re aggressive and conditioned.”
Special teams held strong for much of the game, outside of one fumbled snap on a punt. Punt coverage was strong, and Jonah Villegas had a pair of long kickoff returns to or past midfield, until Bloomfield stopped kicking deep.
“I saw a lot of good things from special teams tonight,” Zeke Villegas said.
The Elks defense also had a few big plays, although they were mostly unable to string enough plays together to stop a Bloomfield drive. Defensive tackle Ethyn Boyd was getting penetration throughout the game and stuffing run plays. Sophomore linebacker Matthew Romero had back-to-back tackles for loss and no gain on one Bloomfield drive, and Gonzales swatted away a pass on fourth down. And they never allowed a play longer than 25 yards, with all of Bloomfield’s touchdowns coming from fairly short distance.
Overall, Pojoaque’s quarterbacks, Meloy and backup Mario Baros — who played one drive — combined to throw 2-for-10 for 20 yards and three interceptions, while being sacked four times. The longest pass play of the day came from Baros to Jonah Villegas for 16 yards, with the Elks down 43-0. The ground game combined for 19 yards on 12 carries, seven of which went for negative yards, and one lost fumble.
“I learned that … I can’t hang my head low,” Meloy said. “Because I’ve got these guys looking to me, that they need to keep their head up, too. Once you make a mistake, we’ve just got to have short-term memory, fix it, and get back on the field with a good attitude and 100 percent.”
Pojoaque enters a bye week, with a chance to regroup before facing Santa Fe Indian (0-2) in what should be a winnable game on Sept. 7 at home.
“I would rather play next week, try to get this behind us a little bit quicker,” Villegas said. “We’re going to go straight into conditioning and get back on track.”