Sloppy as things may have appeared, and often times were, Jake Nossaman still saw plenty positives from his Bobcats in their 62-36 home loss Friday night to nonconference Denver Manual.
After all, the visiting Thunderbolts’ final three touchdowns (and, counting two two-point conversions, 22 total points), all coming within the penultimate 9:30 of the fourth quarter, were direct results of Ignacio turnovers less than 25 yards away from the end zone.
“We basically gave them 16 points off two (turnovers) on the goal line, and off two kick returns; that’s 32 points right there,” Nossaman said. “But, we’ll get that cleaned up. If you take away the fourth quarter...it’d kind of change the whole game.”
Preceded by MHS senior Khriba Jackson’s 81-yard kickoff-return TD, regaining the guests a 40-36 advantage (after senior quarterback Marcus Keller lobbed the conversion pass to senior M.J. Doe) with 10:21 remaining, Ignacio then surrendered six points via Manual senior Tyree Toliver’s blindside strip-sack of quarterback Zane Pontine, and 23-yard runback of the recovered fumble. Keller’s two-point pass was incomplete, but the deficit facing the ’Cats had grown to 46-36 with 9:22 left.
Three Ignacio snaps later, the ’Bolts recovered a fumble deep in IHS’ backfield and set up shop at Ignacio’s 5-yard line. Three offensive plays and just 18 seconds later, Manual junior Ellis Clements crashed in from five yards out and Keller then carried in the conversion, increasing MHS’ advantage to 54-36 with 7:27 to go.
And with 2:50 left, two plays removed from losing a fumble to the Bobcats, the ’Bolts recovered an IHS fumble at Ignacio’s 2. The ’Cats managed to stuff Clements on first down, but not Keller on second, and he then added the two-point tote – making the score 62-36 with 1:52 remaining at a stunned IHS Field.
Senior Gabe Archuleta then returned Manual’s kickoff 19 yards to the Ignacio 34, but the visitors knew full well Pontine had little choice but to throw, and especially knew who to blanket. When Pontine slightly overthrew Archuleta in T’bolt territory, Jackson was able to make the interception – Pontine’s first pick, but the Bobcats’ seventh total turnover – and return it back to IHS’ 45 with 1:31 left on the clock.
Keller took three knees in something of a victory ‘pistol’ formation then actually lost Manual (1-0 overall) 16 rushing yards, but successfully burned off the remaining time and brought the nearly three-hour game to a close.
“It was a long drive from Denver to...wherever we are,” joked Keller. “But we knew it wasn’t going to be easy coming in. We knew it was a ‘business’ trip, knew we had to score a lot of points, so we did...a little bit of everything. Had great execution from all my teammates – I’m just so proud of everybody.”
Keller and Clements each logged two TDs rushing and senior KeArre Watson one – putting MHS up 16-0 with 7:06 left in the second quarter, and truly forcing Ignacio (0-1 overall) into rally mode for most of the game.
The contest had no scoring during the first quarter; Manual’s promising first drive ended with Bobcat senior Lincoln deKay recovering a fumbled pass reception at Ignacio’s 28, but after junior Brandon Blevins then carried for 23 yards on first down, IHS’ initial series ended when Clements covered a botched exchange between Pontine and sophomore center Miguel Red.
The ’Bolts couldn’t capitalize and, after reaching Ignacio’s 11, relinquished possession on downs with 2:23 left. But the ’Cats, then gave the ball back – Clements came up with another fumble recovery, on the first snap of the second quarter, and unfortunately lost Red for the rest of the game to an apparent knee injury.
Setting up shop at the Ignacio 46, Manual shook off two penalties and, helped by a 54-yard Keller-to-Watson connection, broke the proverbial ice with 11:23 left in the half, via a two-yard Clements carry. Junior Jeremiah Myles then caught Keller’s two-point toss and, with the ’Bolts up 8-0, the game was finally afoot.
IHS would tie the score at 16-16 (via a 27-yard Pontine-to-Archuleta pass with 1:13 left in the second quarter, plus Pontine-to-Max Mendoza conversion), at 24-24 (via a 12-yard Pontine-to-Archuleta strike with 7:39 left in the third, plus Pontine conversion run), and finally took an all-too-brief 36-32 lead after Pontine intercepted Keller and turned it into a 36-yard TD with 10:35 left in the fourth.
Also with a 39-yard non-scoring fumble return to his name, Pontine finished the game with more than 250 yards passing and four TDs. Archuleta pulled in nine receptions for 145 yards and deKay snagged TD catches of 41 and 21 yards as part of a solid individual rush/receive effort – all of which was encouraging to Nossaman as he looked ahead to IHS’ Friday trip to, and 6 p.m. kickoff at Cedaredge.
“With the (Red) injury there, right off the start, we had to deal with adversity and I thought the guys did well,” Nossaman said. “We’ve definitely got some things to work on...but we did some really good things and I liked how they fought back. But we’ve got to get them coached up, get them into little better shape and be ready to go.”
