Broncos Claim Victory in First District Game
By Ray Glasscock
The Broncos came six inches short. If only, Cadesman Pope could have moved the football six more inches after catching the fourth down pass from Ethan Morriss.
The Broncos opened district play with a game against long-time rival. (I know it should be the Reagan County. They will always be the Big Lake Owls to me.) The Broncos won the toss and elected to take the opening kickoff. For the fourth time in six games, they were able to march down the field and score.
The drive took eight plays to cover the sixty yards. Morriss had the biggest gain with a run around the right end: it covered 25 yards. Will Anderson scored the touchdown on a 23-yard run. Dustin Neff missed the PAT kick.
Jorge Gaytan blitzed and made a nice tackle at the start of the Owl drive. Constant pressure on the quarterback caused him to throw an interception to Tyler Creek who returned it down the far sideline setting up the next Bronco score. After the interception, Neff scored on a 14-yard run. The Broncos tried a trick play by having Word Hudson go in motion, taking the pitch from Caleb Gonzales, the PAT holder, trying to score the two-point conversion. The Owls, either were not fooled, or just got lucky, and stopped him short of the goal line.
The next Bronco scoring drive was a methodical drive of 70 some yards. It started with a roll out pass to Hudson, followed by runs by Morriss, Anderson, and Neff. Neff got his second touchdown on an eleven yard run. He should have been stopped for no gain, but they failed to “wrap up.” This time his PAT kick was good.
Throughout the game, the Bronco defense stifled anything the Owls tried. This allowed the Broncos to score two more touchdowns in the second quarter. Gonzales scored the next Bronco touchdown on a 28-yard pass from Morriss. Gonzales almost got another touchdown on a pass that he caught as he fought with the Owl defender and came down with another catch at the two-yard line. Two plays later, Creek caught a five-yard touchdown pass from Morriss.
In the third quarter, Zac Rodriguez ripped off several good runs through the Owls. When he got the ball to the Owls 30-yard line, Kris Aguero scored on a 30-yard run.
The Owls got two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. One came after Morriss tried a running rugby-style punt that they blocked.
In case you were wondering, Cadesman Pope was stopped six inches short of scoring the seventh Bronco touchdown that would have made the second game of the season of scoring more than 40 points.
Sonora had 22 first downs to 16 for the Owls. The Broncos rushed 27 times for 208 yards and four touchdowns. They completed 11 of 18 passes for 144 yards and two touchdowns. One statistical blemish was 11 penalties for 80 yards. The Broncos fumbled once, but they recovered it. The Owls fumbled once and lost it. The Owls also threw two interceptions. Caleb Gonzales had an interception that did not count due to a Bronco penalty.
The next Bronco game is against Alpine this Friday in Bronco Stadium. The Alpine Bucks are undefeated this season. They defeated the Ozona Lions 26-13 at Lion Stadium.