For the Mountain Mail
The Socorro football team won their first game of the season on the road defeating Class 4A Grants 41-28. Socorro led 35-6 at the half and cruised to victory.
Socorro will host Ruidoso on Friday. Socorro coach Damien Ocampo said that Ruidoso is a dark horse in the state for 3A. They defeated Class 4A Roswell in their season opener 18-6.
“Roswell, year in and year out is a good team,” Ocampo said. “They’re the toughest district in the state for 4A. Ruidoso is good at their skill positions. They have two solid quarterbacks and are as good as we’re likely to see all year. Their team is not as big as last year’s but they’re twice as fast. I mean they are fast. It should be a great game. The team that makes the least mistakes will win.”
Socorro led against Grants after the first quarter 21-0. Their first score was on a 25-yard pass from Ryan Romero to Zach Esquivel. The Warriors scored next on a 27-yard run by Jose Alvarado. Alvarado scored again running from one yard out.
Freshman Zack Binger was 5-6 kicking extra points for Socorro. In the second quarter Esquivel scored the fourth touchdown on a 40-yard run. Charlie Savedra ran in the ball from one yard out in the second half for Socorro’s 35-6 lead at the half.
“In the first half we capitalized on a couple of fumbles,” Ocampo said. “We scored on our first three tries. We kind of hammered them the first couple of drives. We were blessed with turnovers early on and we protected the ball a good chunk of the time on offense.”
In the second half Socorro was a totally different ball club. Socorro had two turnovers and wasn’t as sharp on offense.
“I think it was just a lackadaisical mental and physical effort on both sides of the ball,” Ocampo said. “It’s just something that we need to learn from to get better. We won’t be able to rebound against these other teams we’re playing. It’s not that Grants is a bad team, they’re a good team.”
In the second half, Ocampo said the Warriors gave points to Grants with blown coverages and penalties.
“You name it,” Ocampo said. “We might as well have handed them 21 points. We can’t do that anymore. We’re not playing teams (in the future) where we can make mistakes.” Socorro’s sixth score was on a 20-yard pass to James Thornton.
Ocampo said that one major issue the team had was not being in great shape but they would work on it.
“We’re also working on being tougher up front,” Ocampo said. “If we can’t bang with the big boys up front, especially on the defense, it’s going to be a long season for us. Grants were a good football team but they can’t hold a stick to these other teams that we’re going to play.”
Ocampo said that he was proud of the kids for going out and finishing with a win but that sometimes the kids and coaches can get satisfied and have a false sense of security.
“If we learn from it, then it could be a plus,” Ocampo said.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment