Hotchkiss showed the difference between the playoff haves and have-nots, beating the Ignacio High School football team 32-14 on Friday in Hotchkiss.
“The biggest difference for us was the running game. We could not get the running game going,” IHS head coach Lupe Huerta said Friday night. “We had some routine missed blocks and went straight to our passing game.”
Adison Jones threw the first of his two touchdowns with 2 minutes, 56 seconds left in the second quarter, finding Wyatt Hayes from 23 yards out.
IHS (0-1) trailed 14-8 at halftime.
Jones struck again 14 seconds into the fourth quarter when he threw a 17-yard touchdown to Miguel Perez.
“He played well. He had plenty of time. The line did an excellent job of pass blocking,” Huerta said. “He had his mistakes, a couple of overthrows. Most of them were pretty nice passes that should have been caught.”
IHS tight end Nick Hererra left the game in an ambulance in the third quarter after being hit in the back during a tackle.
“He’s fine. He’s a little sore. He’s gonna be fine,” Huerta said of Herrera. “It just threw his head back – just caused some issues.”
Hotchkiss (1-0), a 2013 Class 1A postseason qualifier, outscored the Bobcats 18-6 in the second half.
“They just overpowered us with that double-tight formation and put too many people in one spot, and we weren’t able to stop them,” Huerta said.
Ignacio’s schedule doesn’t get any easier.
The Bobcats will host defending Class 1A state champion Paonia at 7 p.m. Sept. 5 in their next game before stepping above their classification against Pagosa Springs and Montezuma-Cortez in their next two games.
“The Paonia game is gonna be tough. Their offense and defense look the same as we saw (Friday), but they’re probably bigger and stronger than what we saw (Friday),” Huerta said. “That’s the whole part of making that schedule tougher. Those are the type of teams that we’ll have to play if we get in the playoffs. That’s the biggest objective for us, to compete with these guys.”
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
