Bobcats Struggle in District-Opening Loss to Santa Rosa

After a rough first half, McCurdy football answered the challenge to show signs of life early in the second half.

“I can respect fear,” McCurdy coach Robert Nevarez said to the team at halftime. “I can respect hesitancy. Because you can turn and face that. But quitting is a quality flaw, it’s a personality flaw that we just can’t afford on this team. Are we going to turn and face our adversary, or are we going to run and hide?”

From down 48-0 at halftime, McCurdy (3-5, 0-1 in district) fought back for their first score of the game, and came up with their first defensive stop before ultimately falling 61-6 to Santa Rosa (6-2, 1-0) on Oct. 8, as they continued to play their “home” games, including last week’s homecoming, at Española Valley High School. A loss where the Bobcats looked out-of-sorts ended a three-game win streak.

“One thing I am proud of them, we didn’t run and hide,” Nevarez said.

“We just collected our thoughts, got back, tried to get back into this game,” said quarterback Lucas Martinez. “Try to do something positive.”

The Lions have been putting together one of their best seasons in years, losing only to top teams and now riding a five-game win streak with an average margin of victory of 49 points. They are the No. 3 2A team in MaxPreps’ rankings.

“They’re a big team,” Nevarez said. “But am I afraid of them? No. Would I play them again next week if I had to? Most definitely. We can’t fear them, we’ve got to keep coming back.”

McCurdy’s inconsistency on defense led to long plays from the disciplined Lions. On the first three plays of the game, they read the play correctly and disrupted the backfield. The first two went for a loss, but the third was a touchdown after a missed tackle. Later in the game, Santa Rosa fooled McCurdy with their single wing plays, and caught McCurdy reading the ‘spinner’ or cheating into the backfield, Nevarez said.

“Our big thing this week was, ‘Do not read the spinner,’” Nevarez said. “The plays where we did have success, we did not read the spinner. The plays where they beat us up, we got caught reading that spinner.”

“You’re constantly training them one way for three weeks in a row,” Nevarez continued, “And all of a sudden you’re telling them not to read into the backfield.”

McCurdy started with the ball and fumbled on their second play, on missed pitch on an option run. Santa Rosa scored three plays later. McCurdy’s next drive reached midfield, aided by penalties, but a false start turned a fourth-and-1 opportunity into a punt situation, and Santa Rosa scored again soon after.

By the end of the first quarter, the Lions led 20-0, and at halftime the score was 48-0, with the Bobcats on the verge of an early ending.

“We were missing heart, everybody,” Martinez said.

But a halftime team gathering gave new life to the Bobcats, aided by some aggressive play calls. Rather than give the ball back, Nevarez called an onside kick to start the second half, and Marius Sanchez executed perfectly, with Dylan Dean recovering. Martinez moved the chains on fourth down, then finally found life with a 29-yard touchdown pass to Ryan Montoya.

And they held onto the ball again with a second onside kick. But penalties sent McCurdy back in their own territory, and they eventually punted.

Early in the fourth quarter, McCurdy made its first defensive stop of the day, recovering a fumble on a run. But they fumbled back two plays later, and Santa Rosa scored on the next play to cross the 50-point-margin threshold and end the game with eight minutes on the clock.

Offensively, the Bobcats gained just 43 yards on 35 run plays. They went 1-for-13 on passes, with the lone completion as the 29-yard touchdown pass to Montoya. And McCurdy committed four turnovers, two interceptions and two fumbles.

Jeremaya Roybal was the leading rusher in the game with 22 yards, followed by Lucas Martinez at 21 yards.

“A little disappointed, we’re going to need to bounce back for next week,” said Martinez.

McCurdy faces another challenge this week, traveling to Escalante (4-4, 1-0), looking for their first win in the once-strong rivalry game since 2012. The last seven meetings have all been Escalante wins by at least 40 points.

“We’ve got to get back to our game,” Nevarez said. “We’ve got to get back to the way we run our offense and our defense. Escalante, even in their rebuilding years, they’re still a good team. They’re a very well-coached team and they’re a very disciplined team. We cannot afford to make the mistakes that we’ve made.”