The Ignacio football team made a few too many mistakes and suffered a 28-7 loss to Monte Vista in the Bobcats’ 1A Southern Peaks League opener Friday night at Bobcat Stadium in Ignacio.
The Bobcats (1-5, 0-1 SPL) did well to hang with the Pirates (3-2, 1-0), but a couple mistakes led to big touchdowns for Monte Vista.
“It’s tough,” Ignacio head coach Alfonso Garcia said. “We’re just a small squad, and I don’t want to make excuses, but I thought we could have played better. You play four quarters, and I think we played one and a half.”
Garcia said he thought the Bobcats got a bit worn down in the second half, which led to Monte Vista pulling away with a couple long touchdowns.
The Bobcats got a boost in the return of quarterback Trace Lovelace, who missed last week with an ankle injury. What was initially feared to be a broken bone, Lovelace’s X-rays came back negative and he was diagnosed with a deep bruise. “He’s a tough kid. He actually had a great game with some nice scrambles,” Garcia said of Lovelace.
Lovelace threw the Bobcats’ lone touchdown with a deep ball to Lawrence Valdez on a post route.
Ignacio will play Dolores (3-2, 1-0) next week in Dolores. Garcia said two big points of focus heading into next week will be pass protection on offense and cleaning up the little mistakes on defense that hurt the Bobcats on Friday.
“On defense, we can’t have kids missing assignments. It’s the little things,” Garcia said. “If we don’t cover the little things, big things happen.”
kschneider@durangoherald.com
