In the past two weeks the Roadrunners have faced two of the top teams in the state in Division IV football, and the results of those two meetings have not gone well for Holbrook.
Coming off the previous week’s shutout loss to Blue Ridge, Holbrook welcomed Show Low to town on Friday night. The Cougars are the defending state champions in the old 3A Conference, and while not perceived to be as good as Blue Ridge this year, they are still a very good team.
The Roadrunners did a good job on the night on Josh Weeks when he played receiver, limiting the Brigham Young University recruit to just one catch, primarily because of the play of Rashaun Baldwin. However, when Weeks played quarterback, Holbrook really didn’t have an answer for him or the rest of the Cougar starting unit.
The Roadrunners had problems with interceptions when they played Blue Ridge and on Friday night they again threw two picks that were returned for scores. With 3:58 left in the first period, Cody Tenney picked off a Torrian Epps pass and returned it 50 yards for a score. On the final play of the first quarter, Weeks scored on a 26-yard run, weaving his way through Holbrook’s secondary to push the lead to 14-0.
Midway through the second quarter Zack Winn found Daniel MacLeod for a 33-yard touchdown pass. Just 24 seconds later Weeks picked off another Holbrook pass and returned it 46 yards for a touchdown. Weeks then threw a touchdown pass to MacLeod from eight yards out and ran in the two-point conversion himself, giving the Cougars a commanding 34-0 halftime lead.
The Cougars gave most of their first string players the rest of the night off, but still scored points. Early in the third period Colby Maxwell hooked up with James Morin on a 10-yard touchdown pass, pushing the lead to 41-0.
With 3:23 left in the third Holbrook avoided the shutout when Epps pushed the pile forward on a quarterback sneak from a yard out. Epps then found Baldwin for the two-point conversion pass, making the score 41-8.
In the fourth period Donnie Barrago booted a 44-yard field goal for the Cougars and Maxwell found Trevor Solomon on an eight-yard pass, ending the scoring with the Cougars in front 51-8.
On the night the Cougars finished with nearly 500 yards of total offense, with more than half coming on the ground. Holbrook’s offense was limited to less than 150 yards and the Roadrunners committed four turnovers.
Show Low 14 20 7 10 51
Holbrook 0 0 0 8 8
This week things will get a little easier for Holbrook, although not much. St. Johns comes to Roadrunner Stadium on Friday, Oct. 7, on the heels of a 48-0 shutout loss to Blue Ridge. St. Johns is a good Division V team, but the Redskins showed they are not equal to the top team in the next division up. They have fewer players than Holbrook, but those they do have are big and play very physical ball. They have a good quarterback and will be looking to get back on the winning track, having gone through the likes of Blue Ridge, Show Low and Snowflake already this season.
