By Marco Martinez, special to the Roswell Daily Record — The annual Red vs. Blue matchup between Roswell and Goddard High Schools takes place Friday night at 7 p.m. at the Wool Bowl. To prepare for the 2026 game, we look back at how both teams performed last year and how they are shaping up in 2026.
2025 recap
In 2025, the Goddard Rockets ended their season with a 7-5 record, which included a trip to the playoffs. In the regular season, they started with their non-district schedule against Portales, Carlsbad and Valley, which ended in wins against Portales and Valley and a loss to Carlsbad. They then moved to their district schedule, which started with home games against Santa Teresa and Lovington. The Rockets beat Santa Teresa and lost to Lovington. The Rockets followed this with two home victories against Gadsden and Deming. The Rockets then traveled to Mayfield and Artesia, where they won against Mayfield, but lost to Artesia. The Rockets’ final game of the regular season was the rivalry game against Roswell High, where they fell 35-21, putting them at 6-4 at the end of the regular season. Their strong regular season qualified them as the fifth seed in the 5A state playoffs. In the first round, they beat Deming 35-14, which moved them on to the second round against Lovington, where their season came to an end after a 28-14 loss.
2026 so far
At press time, the Rockets have played seven games, have a 3-4 record and were 2-2 in district play. In non-district play, they faced Lovington, Carlsbad and Los Lunas, losing to the first two before beating Los Lunas in week three to enter district play at 1-2. In district play, they started with two home games against Chaparral and Alamogordo, beating Chaparral 47-0 before losing to Alamogordo 28-27. They then had two away games against Gadsden and Deming, which ended in a 34-20 loss to Gadsden and a 54-0 win against Deming. At press time, the Rockets still have to play against Mayfield and Artesia at home before being the visiting team in the rivalry game against the Roswell Coyotes.
2026 key players
In 2026, the Rockets are led by junior quarterback Nate Vazquez, who, after seven games, has thrown for 1,455 yards, 13 touchdowns and six interceptions. He also had two rushing touchdowns. For rushing, the team totaled 1,005 yards and 14 touchdowns, which came from seven players, with the most coming from Isaiah Montoya, who had 527 yards and five touchdowns. For receiving, Jose Porras had 606 yards with six touchdowns. He also leads skill-position players with 11 total touchdowns. Bryant O’Mera is in second place in receiving on the team with 378 yards and two touchdowns. On defense, Romeo Paiz led the team with 59 sacks; Alijah Sanchez has two sacks and Jordan Chavez and Jesus Ortiz both have two interceptions.
