The first few possessions of Friday night’s home game against Monument Valley could not have gone better for the Roadrunners. Unfortunately, there was a lot more game to play and the Holbrook squad lost the contest, 28-13.
As the game unfolded, Holbrook’s defense forced the Mustangs into negative yards, then once the Roadrunners had the ball on offense, Zahkari Waits rumbled in from 44 yards out on the teams’ second play to open the scoring.
From that point on the Mustangs gradually gained control of the contest.
With 31 seconds left in the first period, Monument’s Billy Mitchell capped a long drive with a 10-yard run. The point after kick tied the game at 7-7. Just before the half Mustang quarterback Jonah Hale scored on a 12-yard run, leaving Holbrook on the wrong side of a 14-7 score.
With 7:16 left in the third period Mustang Jonah Hale connected with Richie Hoshnic, pushing the margin to 21-7 with Hoshnic’s point after boot. On the final play of the third period, Holbrook quarterback Finn Kinghorn executed a misdirection play to perfection, which resulted in a 10 yard touchdown run by Tyrell Yazzie to make the score 21-13.
Monument put the game out of reach early in the fourth period with a Trevor Russell one-yard plunge to paydirt, making the final score 28-13.
Holbrook’s offense became one dimensional, with Kinghorn completing just one of 13 pass attempts for three yards. That completion went to Yazzie. On the ground Holbrook piled up 181 yards led by Waits, who finished the night with 153 yards on 20 carries. Jeffrey Jones gained 20 yards on 11 attempts. Yazzie had one run for 10 yards. Kinghorn and Frankie Ulibarri each had one carry for seven yards.
Ulibarri led the defensive unit with 15 tackles, four of which were for a loss. Tyson Begay and Darrin Tyler each were credited with 11 takedowns. Jeffrey Jones made nine tackles. Jalen Nez and Gabriel Santibanez each pulled down interceptions.
This week Holbrook will travel to Sedona for a matchup of two teams still looking for their initial win of the season. Red Rock was shut out by St. Johns 46-0 in week one, and dropped a 28-27 contest to Chino Valley on Sept. 2.
