By Greg Perkins Holbrook’s trip to Blue Ridge on Friday night pretty much ended as expected with the 32nd ranked Roadrunners falling to the 11th ranked Yellowjackets by a final of 36-0. Playing with an early lead, and trying to keep the score down, the Jackets decided to work on their kicking game, attempting nine field goals during the game, most on either first or second down. Blue Ridge opened up the scoring at the 8:24 mark of the first quarter on a short run by Chase Esparza. PJ London’s point after kick gave the Yellowjacket fans an early 7-0 lead. Holbrook’s offense struggled throughout the night, but their defense stepped up on Blue Ridge’s second drive, when Keith Scheuerman intercepted a Blue Ridge pass at the goal line. That stalled the home team’s scoring drive for a while. Early in the second period a second short touchdown run by Esparza pushed the lead to 13-0. Two minutes later a 17-yard pass from London to Zeke Kessay pushed the lead to 20-0. From that point on Blue Ridge elected to kick field goals and made good on two of them in the second period building the halftime lead to 26-0. They didn’t have time for a field goal to start the second half. Holbrook kicked off and the Jackets quickly returned the kick 75 yards in just 11 seconds making the lead 33-0. One more field goal in the second half ended the scoring with Blue Ridge on top. Holbrook’s offense had some intermittent highlights with quarterback Anthony Nelson making some nice completions to Oscar Hernandez. Unfortunately Hernandez left the game midway through the second period due to an injury. Also Myron Begay was involved in some solid offensive plays. On defense John O’Brien, Tyson Begay and Cordell Begay all played well. With the loss Holbrook fell to 1-7, while Blue Ridge improved to 5-4. This week Holbrook ends the season on the road at Show Low, while Blue Ridge will host Payson.
