Serving the High Plains

Rattlers on bye week, Longhorns and Coyotes in district play

link Rattler’s D’Ontee Sandoval goes up for the touchdown pass from quarterback Tyler Ferguson for his second score of Friday night’s game against the West Las Vegas Dons.

Thomas Garcia

QCS Senior Writer

The Tucumcari Rattlers (0-7) have a bye week before they start their district run at the Santa Rosa Lions (2-5) next week.

The Rattlers’ last game was a 67-36 loss Friday night to the West Las Vegas Dons in Tucumcari.

A bright spot: Tucumcari outscored the Dons 28-26 in the second half.

Coach Wayne Ferguson said the team did not take advantage of momentum gained from D’Ontee Sandoval’s return of the opening kickoff for a touchdown. It was his third kickoff return for a touchdown in two games.

Sandoval also had two touchdown catches from Rattlers quarterback Tyler Ferguson — a 37-yarder in the third quarter and a 21-yarder in the fourth quarter.

Running back Saul Moriel scored twice for the Rattlers, on an 8-yard pass from Ferguson in the third quarter and on a 3-yard rush in the fourth quarter

The Rattlers had 350 yards of offense, Ferguson was 12-of-18 passing for 165 yards and three touchdowns and Moriel, Daniel Lopez and Brandon Aragon rushed for a combined 185 yards with one touchdown.

Coach Ferguson said the team came alive in the second half, making stops on defense and executing the offense well to get into scoring position.

He said the team wasn’t as aggressive in the first half and allowed the game to get away from them.

Dons’ quarterback J.J. Montano spread the ball to four different receivers for touchdowns in the first half for a 41-8 lead.

Ferguson said the team needs to work on coming out with the same fire it had in the second half against the Dons. He said the Rattlers need to be aggressive from the start and the way they played in the second half should show them they are capable of physical play.

8-Man

The Logan Longhorns (7-0, 2-0) are coming of their second halftime win by 50 points in two weeks. Last Friday night they beat the Manual Panthers 50-0 at Logan.

“Our guys hit harder on defense than they had all season in this game,” said Keene Terry, Longhorns head coach.

Terry said the passing game was off against the Panthers; quarterback Wyatt Strand was getting the ball to the receivers but the passes were being dropped. He said it’s bound to happen from time to time where the ball is there but the receiver just can’t pull it in for the completion.

Terry said the team would work on hand skills as it prepares to travel Friday to take on the Red Devils (2-4, 0-2) at Springer.

He said the team is healthy and is getting ready to play in the colder air.

Game time: 7 p.m.

6-Man

The San Jon/Grady Coyotes (5-1) (1-0) used their bye week to work on getting their new quarterback up to speed for their second district game this Friday at Lake Arthur.

Bobby Gomez, Coyotes head coach, said D.C. Lee has been working to become more familiar with being under center and in the pocket.

Starting quarterback Joseph Benavidez suffered a broken collarbone on Sept. 20 against Reserve and is out for the season.

Gomez said Lee led the Coyotes to a 66-19 win Oct. 3, against the Roy/Wagon Mound Longhorns.

Game time: 6 p.m.