Friday night’s game in Snowflake figured to be a lopsided game and for Lobo fans, they weren’t disappointed. Snowflake piled up 44 first half points en route to a 52-7 final outcome over the Roadrunners. The win was Snowflake’s fourth straight, moving them to 6-2 overall. Conversely, the loss was Holbrook’s fourth straight setback dropping them to 2-6 on the season.
Snowflake entered the game ranked ninth in the 3A power rankings and needs to ascend into the top eight to earn a first round home game. With matchups against Show Low and Blue Ridge in the final two weeks they needed the Holbrook win.
The Roadrunners are simply trying to survive the season and get some quality work to build for next season. The Birds are well out of the playoff picture and has games with a suddenly struggling Winslow and a two win Payson team left on their docket.
As for the game itself, Snowflake didn’t take long to get into the scoring column. With 10:42 left in the first period Traegon Standerfer connected with David Brimhall on a 36-yard catch and run making the score 6-0. Just two minutes later Brimhall scored again, this time on a 57 yard run. At the 6:03 mark of the first period Jake Christensen made the score 18-0 with a six yard touchdown scamper.
Nathan Penrod picked off a Frankie Ulibarri aerial and returned it 49 yards for the fourth Lobo touchdown of the period making the score 24-0. Finally, with 12 seconds left a short scoring toss from Standerfer to Cody Fox made the score 31-0 following Caden Despain’s first successful point after kick.
Snowflake picked up their scoring spree early in the second period on a Brig Turley 51-yard run around left end pushing the lead to 38-0. Then with 3:26 left in the half Fox scored on a 15 yard run making the half time margin 44-0.
With the mercy rule running clock in motion to start the second half, Holbrook put together a solid offensive march. Playing against mostly second line players from Snowflake, the Roadrunners took the opening second half kickoff and consumed the entire third period and nearly the first four minutes of the fourth period before Ulibarri found pay dirt on a one yard plunge. Andrew Dawson made good on his only point after attempt giving Holbrook their only seven points of the game.
With 5:24 left in the ball game Snowflake’s Brig Turley found the end zone for the second time of the night, this one coming on a 36-yard run. The Lobos converted the two-point play for the final score of 52-7.
Snowflake used three quarterbacks in the game with Standerfer, Jake Christensen and Ethan Ramage combining to complete 6 of 12 passes for 75 yards with two touchdown passes thrown by Standerfer.
Fox had two receptions for 16 total yards with one score. Brimhall had one catch for 36 yards and a score. Taylor Flake caught one for 12 yards, Christensen had one for eight yards, and Brigden Turley had one three-yard catch.
On the ground the Lobos piled up 293 yards. Brigden Turley led the way with 100 yards on just four attempts with two scores. Brimhall carried four times gaining 83 yards with one touchdown. Jace Merrell had 64 yards on four attempts. Christensen had one six-yard run for a score. Isaac Dally carried twice picking up five yards.
Nathan Penrod, Fox and Davis Kay each had interceptions and Trace Hancock recovered one Holbrook fumble.
The Roadrunners picked up most of their yardage on that long third period drive. Ulibarri completed 7 of 20 passes for 59 yards but threw a trio of interceptions. Eric Baldonado was 2 for 3 for 4 yards.
Brady Buckley was Holbrook’s leading receiver with 32 yards on four catches. Finn Kinghorn had 17 yards on three grabs and Zakhari Waits caught 2 balls for 14 total yards.
On the ground Ulibarri led the Holbrook attack with 79 yards and one score on 15 attempts. Waits picked up 72 yards on 17 rushes. Buckley carried twice for two yards.
This week the Lobos travel to Show Low for a critical East Region win which could secure Snowflake a top eight seed, although they still have Blue Ridge left in the final game.
Holbrook welcomes in a suddenly struggling Winslow team. The Bulldogs won the first five games of the season but have since dropped three straight including a surprise home field loss to Payson on Friday. Holbrook is not going to the post season but a win over Winslow would feel like a trip to state. Winslow is just trying to regain their early season momentum and hopes to make the final state bracket.
