Estancia
The Bears suffered a through an uncomfortable outing against rival Santa Rosa last week, 56-14, finishing up non-district play 2-5 and are ranked eighth in the coaches poll.
With a bye this week before going into district play, the Bears get a chance for a little breather.
“It just gives us a chance to catch our breath, let our kids rest,” coach Stewart Burnett said. “We put a lot on them. It’s a grind.”
Last week, Joshua Calhoon rushed for 174 yards, scoring two touchdowns against the Lions. The first of the two was made in the first quarter and the other in the second. His second touchdown helped to tie the game at 14 going into halftime.
Although the Bears lost, their coach was proud of the effort they put out on the field.
“For a quarter and I half I would argue we played the best football we’ve played all year,” Burnett said.
As he’s said before, Burnett knows he’s got a young group on the field, and it’s up to him to shape them into a winning team.
“We were overmatched heading into that game, we knew that,” he said. “The biggest issue is we’ve got so much youth and inexperience really on both sides of the ball. But it’s worse on defense because when we’re on offense we can control things with what to do to try and hide or compensate for our weak areas, and on defense we don’t have that control.”
Estancia has a bye this week but are set to play their homecoming game Oct. 13 against Mescalero Apache. Burnett said he believes it’s a game the Bears can win and he is hopeful that the Bears can pull off a few more wins and make it into the state playoffs.
“If we win two of our last three (games) we should have a really realistic shot of making the playoffs,” he said. “We’ve got some games built in there that are some really key and important head-to-head matchups and as long as the rest of the season plays out the way I think it should for those teams, we win two of these next three.”
Mountainair
The Mustangs (3-3) and were able to redeem their two-week losing streak, defeating Carrizozo on the Grizzlies homefield 67-13 last week.
The Grizzlies went into the game having been mercy ruled in three of its four losses. The Mustangs are now 3-3 overall and ranked sixth in six-man
The Mustangs will take on the Chesterton Academy Saints tonight at home. The Saints (1-4) have fallen to their previous four opponents and have been outscored 208-56 in that stretch. Chesterton’s only win came via forfeit.