MONTE VISTA — Monte Vista junior workhorse Jacob Pacheco carried the football 30 times for 266 yards and scored four touchdowns, helping the Pirates cap each of their first six series with a touchdown en route to a 42-7 win this past Friday over Ignacio.
“Penalties were killing us; those hurt a bit. But when you play a squad as big as these guys … there’s no comparison,” said Bobcats coach Alfonso Garcia. “And when you’ve got a ton of players like they do, they’ll run you to death.”
Ignacio fell to 3-4 overall and 2-1 in the 1A South Central league standings. Monte Vista improved to 5-2 overall, 3-0 in the 1A South Central league.
Pacheco carried the ball nine times during Monte Vista’s resulting first drive, which started at their 30 with 11:41 remaining in the first quarter, plowing in for a 2-yard score.
Sophomore Jon Enderle then ran for the 2-point conversion, extending Monte Vista’s lead to 8-0.
Enderle later scored from a yard out with 11:22 left in the second quarter, and Pacheco’s subsequent 2-point try was successful, making it 16-0. Monte Vista’s lead grew to 22-0 before Ignacio finally got on the scoreboard.
Starting from their 36, and able to shake off an immediate false-start penalty pushing them back to the 31, the Bobcats went the distance in five plays — including a 42-yard pass from sophomore quarterback Zane Pontine to senior Devante Montoya, tackled at the Monte Vista 4 – in just one minute and 13 seconds.
Pontine polished off the push by following senior center Cruz Martinez into the end zone from a yard out, and junior Charlie Pargin’s point-after kick brought Ignacio back to 22-7 with 3:35 to go.
The Pirates responded with an eight-play, 64-yard counter-strike ending with a 28-yard Pacheco touchdown with 39.6 ticks left until intermission. Junior quarterback Kaden Madrid’s 2-point flip to Kevin Cisneros was caught, but short of the goal line to keep the margin 28-7.
“I think in the beginning we came out too scared, and then we started to pick it up toward the end,” said Ignacio senior Rylan Maez, who was involved in at least 10 tackles. “We started getting a little bit of momentum, but they just kept pulling away on us.”
Late in the game, Martinez barged into Monte Vista’s backfield and blew up backup quarterback Kaden Mellott’s option pitch to Ismael Medina, which Pontine recovered.
Beginning the last drive at their 26 with 3:03 left in the fourth quarter, the Bobcats neared midfield thanks to a pass-interference call, and entered Pirate territory via a 14-yard Pontine quarterback keeper on the final play.
Pontine totaled 26 yards rushing on six carries, while sophomore Lincoln DeKay managed 27 yards on seven carries. Hendren had 52 yards on five carries. Pontine completed five passes for 90 yards, with Montoya catching four for 82 yards and Maez catching one for 8 yards.
Ignacio will host Centauri at 7 p.m. Friday.
“We’ve got to practice hard this week and go hard on Senior Night,” Maez said. “I’m looking forward to it.”
