Pontine flings 5 TD, Ignacio rolls 34-7
Beginning a brutal stretch of four consecutive out-of-town games, the Ignacio Bobcats went, well, ballistic Friday night, Sept. 13, and bombed Olathe 34-7 at welcoming Wilson Field.
“It actually kind of surprised me a little bit because we’d been struggling in practice with passes,” said senior running back D.J. Hendren, who recovered senior Charley Pargin’s onside kick after IHS went up 7-0 with 7:30 left in the first quarter, “but everyone showed out this game – and that’s what we all needed.”
“We thought about just running the ball,” junior quarterback Zane Pontine – who’d ended the guests’ first series connecting with junior Gabe Archuleta from 17 yards out – said through a grin, “but we figured out passing worked a lot better.”
All the damage was done before halftime; Pontine polished off five drives with touchdown throws, three going to Archuleta – including a 66-yard dagger through the heart of OHS’ defense, increasing the visitors’ lead to 20-7 (prior to senior Charley Pargin’s point-after kick) as the first quarter expired.
Senior Kendrick Nossaman then smothered Pargin’s squibber starting the second stanza, and Ignacio (1-2 overall, 0-0 1A Southern Peaks) then proceeded to go 45 yards in 7 plays and 3:34, with sophomore Cayson Burcham legging out a 15-yard score off a short toss to the left flat. Pontine then tried to throw a two-point conversion, but Pirate junior Angel Suarez broke up the throw near the goal line – leaving IHS with a 27-7 advantage and 8:26 still left until intermission.
The ’Cats then forced a three-and-out ending with a Colton Snell punt, bobbled out of bounds at the Bobcat 47-yard line by Hendren, and Ignacio capitalized by covering the 53 yards in ten plays, with Pontine lobbing a 17-yard TD to Archuleta. Pargin tacked on the PAT, and with 1:46 remaining the ’Cats were well on their way to booking their first win after two near misses.
“The past two games…didn’t go how we wanted them to,” said junior Aven Bourriague, who hauled in a 20-yard TD pass with 3:38 left in the first quarter, then later intercepted Pirate sophomore QB Garrett Keith at IHS’ 10 with 0:13 left in the second, “so I felt like we had a chip on our shoulder. We felt like we had something to prove.”
Priority No. 1 defensively for Ignacio, Suarez scored OHS’ only touchdown by carrying a 17-yarder around left end, immediately after Bobcat sophomore William Mendoza-Lechuga muffed a Snell punt and Pirate senior Jeyden Estrada recovered. Snell then booted the PAT, bringing Olathe (2-1, 0-0 1A Western Slope) back to 14-7 with 1:04 remaining in the first quarter.
“They were a really tough running team, honestly,” Bourriague said, alluding to not only Suarez’s score but the Pirates’ productive misdirection runs featuring Keith early in the second half. “And when they started bouncing outside, that’s when Number 24 (Suarez, 8-48 rushing) gets tricky. We just tried to contain him; that was the game plan.”
Suarez recovered a cramp-hampered Hendren fumble at IHS’ 31 only 25 ticks into the third quarter, but the Pirates failed to profit from the golden gift as their resulting series died on downs at the 25. Still electing to keep things moving on the grass rather than through the cloudless, moonlit sky, Ignacio then reached OHS’ 21 in eight plays but relinquished possession after Pontine was stopped for no gain on the ninth and Hendren caught a pass but lost two yards on the tenth.
Pontine (15-of-23 passing, 232 yards, 0 INT) struck back, however, intercepting Keith (2-of-14, 16 yards; 5-34 rushing) at IHS’ 25 with 16.5 ticks left, and the Pirates wouldn’t again touch the ball until just 2:41 remained in the fourth and final frame – having mercifully stopped a truly torturous Bobcat march.
Set up at their own 17 after Pontine’s pick was effectively negated by a penalty during the return, the ’Cats were then flagged ten times (an 11th infraction was offset by a call against Olathe), with the last three violations – plus a four-yard sack of Pontine – pushing Ignacio off the Pirate 16 and back to the 35, where the possession petered out via an incomplete pass.
Archuleta ended up with seven receptions for 136 yards and Bourriague four for 74. Burcham finished with three grabs for 24 and Hendren one for minus-2. Junior Lincoln deKay rushed for 113 yards on 15 carries, most coming during the second half, and Hendren netted 59 on 10. Sophomore Brandon Blevins came off the bench to gain 14 yards on six carries, and Pontine netted nine yards on 12.
Ignacio will next face a true test Friday night, Sept. 20, at 2A Bayfield – which followed up a season-opening 41-7 win at 4A Aztec, N.M., with a 67-0 (42 points came during the first quarter) execution of 3A Gallup, N.M., on the 13th – for a rare 8 p.m. kickoff.
“This was the momentum we needed to go into our next couple games, especially against Bayfield,” said Hendren. “I’m excited, and we’re ready for it.”
“I’m feeling pretty good,” Pontine said. “I want to win that game bad … been looking forward to it for a while.”
RECORD PACE
Pontine’s first-half air raid put him on track to equal or break CHSAA’s 11-man single-game record total of nine – set in 2019 by 5A Boulder Fairview’s Aidan Atkinson – before a run game was not only established but, in anticipation of the trip to Bayfield, emphasized after halftime.
The five TDs, however, put Pontine in a logjam for 16th-most in one half, joining names like Atkinson – who threw a record eight while setting the aforementioned single-game record, and also slung five in one half multiple times – and former then-3A Grand Junction great Doug Musgrave, who went on to play NCAA Division I football at both Michigan (which reached the Rose Bowl ending Musgrave’s 1989 freshman season, but lost to Southern California) and Oregon.
CHSAA’s current all-classification standard for TD passes in a game is ten, established in 6-man action by Longmont Christian’s Luke Puchino in a 71-20 rout of Saguache-based Mountain Valley (Puchino had tossed nine TDs a week earlier in an 83-75 loss to Briggsdale) in 2016.