The sixth week of the local football season marks the beginning of East Region play for Holbrook, Winslow and Snowflake. Joseph City has already played two games in their region.
Holbrook travels to Blue Ridge in hopes of moving their season record to the positive side of the win column. With wins in their past two games the Roadrunners stand at 2-2 on the season and for the first time in forever it seems, they might just be the favorite against a struggling Yellowjacket club. Blue Ridge is just 1-4 on the season and in the midst of a three game losing skid. Their only victory is an unimpressive two touchdown win over Window Rock. The vaunted Blue Ridge program has fallen quickly in a short amount of time. Just three years ago they were state champions having won two of their twenty plus titles in a three year stretch. Holbrook hasn’t faced the Jackets since they were the dominant team on the mountain. Dating back to 2012 Blue Ridge had shut out Holbrook four years in a row.
They won’t shut out the Roadrunners this year. Holbrook has enough speed in Cade Maestas and a solid quarterback in Ryan Short to put up points. The Roadrunners, while not a juggernaut, have improved over their four games and this may be their best chance in their remaining games to win an East Region contest. Blue Ridge still has pride and will want to avoid the cellar in the East Region. Like Holbrook their remaining schedule includes the same four opponents; Snowflake, Show Low, Winslow and Payson. None of those match ups look good for them. A win over Holbrook might be their only shot for an East Region victory. Holbrook is the favorite in this game, but playing on the road in the cold at Blue Ridge, should keep this game close. Blue Ridge used to have a whole team full of speed. Chances are they still have one or two players who can keep up with Maestas. This game may come down to Holbrook’s passing attack and their defense if they want to stay out of the bottom of the East Region standings.
Snowflake hosts Winslow and much like the Blue Ridge-Holbrook match up this has been a lopsided affair over the past decade. In fact in the last ten years Winslow has just two victories over the Lobos with both coming in the same 2006 season. Winslow won the regular season meeting 27-20, then knocked Snowflake out of the state tournament with a 39-21 win.
The past nine seasons have belonged to Snowflake with the closest contest being a two touchdown margin of difference. Snowflake appears headed for another state title game appearance. They have just one close game, a controversial win over Thatcher in their unblemished 5-0 record. The other four games have been lopsided including their win two weeks ago over Safford.
The Lobos were idle last week and will have had plenty of time to prepare for the 4-1 Bulldogs. Winslow lost their first game of the year to Monument Valley, but has since won four straight convincingly, although they have not beaten playoff caliber opponents. Snowflake opened the season with three consecutive shut outs, but has since allowed five scores in their past two wins.
Winslow put up 50 points in their win over Coconino last week, but they will find the sledding much more difficult tonight. Snowflake is the better team and should cruise to an easy win, although Winslow will score some points.
Joseph City cruised through their first four games, but they must still be stinging from the 70-14 pounding they took on their home field from a very good Williams team last week. Tonight they face a Valley Union unit that opened the season in a similar fashion to the Wildcats last game, a 72-8 loss to Bagdad. Since then the Blue Devils have won four straight. Joseph City won four straight to open things, then took the huge loss last week. These two last played in 2009 in a 20-18 Joseph City win. This game could be just as competitive if Joseph City can bounce back from a disappointing result last week. Playing after a long road trip will make things tough, but the Wildcats need this rebound win, and should prevail in a close one.
