The Roswell Coyotes continued their dominance of in-state opponents Friday, rolling past District 5A-2 foe Gadsden 49-14.
If there was one area where Coyotes coach Jeff Lynn believed Roswell held a clear edge entering the matchup, it was special teams.
“If there’s one advantage that we have against Gadsden, I think we’re probably better than them in special teams,” Lynn said before the game on Oct. 1. “We talked to our kids all week about ‘Maybe we can block it here? Let’s get the return. Let’s make a play in that arena,’ and we spend a lot of time working on that.”
Roswell (6-1, 4-0) did not settle for one special-teams spark. The Coyotes made three major plays in that phase, highlighted by running back Debrise Ashung’s 98-yard kickoff return for a touchdown that halted Gadsden’s momentum.
“I mean, it was 28-14 at that point. You know that kickoff return, they had some momentum, and that just kind of squashed that momentum,” Lynn said.
Ashung’s return was not Roswell’s only kickoff highlight. In the first quarter, the Coyotes recovered their own short pooch kick after Gadsden failed to secure the ball. Roswell also dialed up a fake punt that produced a sizable gain and a first down.
“We faked the punt, didn’t punt (on Friday). Punt return was good,” Lynn said. “We were clicking on all cylinders (on Friday).”
The Coyotes’ offense and defense handled the rest in familiar fashion.
Roswell opened the game with another one-play scoring drive, as quarterback Andruw Fuentez connected with Luis Chavez for an 80-yard touchdown pass. The points began piling up from there.
“We’re a momentum team, and we get our guys in space, and you know they make a play. So that was huge,” Lynn said. The coaches did a good job of game planning. It worked, and so, and then Luis Chavez showed some speed. … Ran like he stole something.”
Gadsden (5-2, 3-2) could not find that same rhythm on its opening possession. Roswell forced a quick punt, then scored in rapid succession to build an early two-score lead.
That start put the Panthers in an uncomfortable position. Gadsden wants to control games with a physical, clock-draining run attack, but falling behind early made that approach much more difficult.
“It really puts pressure on them because they want to ground and pound, and they want to control the clock,” Lynn said. “I mean, you go down two scores; it’s really hard to play that style. So that was really important that we got out fast.”
The lopsided win moved Roswell within a single point of matching its 2024 regular-season point total, when the Coyotes went on to claim the Class 5A state championship.
Now, Roswell turns its attention to a bye week before its matchup with Artesia (4-3, 4-0) in the state’s oldest football rivalry. For Lynn, the timing is not a concern. The Coyotes are accustomed to navigating breaks in the schedule.
“We deal with bye weeks every year. Typically we’re a one- or two-seed going to the playoffs, so we get another bye,” Lynn said. “We’ve got a system that we use to handle that bye week, and we’ll be ready.”
