Holbrook’s chances of making the Division V state football playoffs suffered a setback last Friday night in Red Mesa, where the Roadrunners fell 20-18. With St. Johns and Round Valley, two strong teams, left on the Roadrunners’ schedule along with match-ups with Alchesay and Window Rock, the Birds, who entered the weekend ranked 18th in power points, needed a win over the Redskins to stay in touch with the top 16 teams. Red Mesa had other thoughts though, handing Holbrook the two-point loss and a long bus ride home.

The Roadrunner offense finished with 276 yards total, but couldn’t put the ball in the end zone more than twice. Scottie Gishie’s 63-yard punt return for a score gave them hope, but their offense just wasn’t able to finish off drives with enough scores.

Cade Maestas completed just five of 17 attempts for 91 total yards through the air with one touchdown and one interception. Gishie caught two of the five, with one going for his second score of the night. Cole McDaniel had one catch for 12 yards, Wazuri Waits had one for 30 yards and Shane McGraw caught one for eight yards.

On the ground the Birds fared a little better, gaining 185 yards on 35 attempts. Wazuri Waits carried 12 times for 76 yards. Maestas rushed 10 times for 44 yards with a score. Zakhari Waits had three rushes totaling 31 yards. McGraw rushed five times for 25 yards and Julian Garcia had five totes for nine yards.

Jedde Bowman led the defense with 19 tackles, followed by Oscar Hernandez with 11 and Garcia with 10.

The Redskins came into the game with a 4-1 record, but due to their opponents being so poor, they were ranked 25th in the standings with far and away the easiest strength of schedule based on the power point formula of any of the 49 teams in Division V. Had the Roadrunners won this game they wouldn’t have moved up significantly in the standings, but the loss will certainly drop them lower, and puts them in a position where they will need to upset either St. Johns or Round Valley, as well as get expected wins over Alchesay and Window Rock if they want to advance to post-season play.

Holbrook, now 3-3, will face the 1-5 Alchesay Falcons on Friday night, Oct. 9, in Whiteriver. After winning their first game of the season, the Falcons have since dropped five straight, including last Friday’s 53-12 loss to Round Valley at Eagar.