Lightning stops Prep, LA game

CASA BLANCA, N.M.

Win, lose or draw.

Usually the outcome of any game entails the first two choices but last Friday night the Navajo Prep and Laguna-Acoma football teams played something similar to the latter.

Due to lightning, the game was called with 2:23 left in the opening half as both teams were still in the locker room a little past 10 p.m., three hours after they started the contest.
Both teams agreed that they didn’t want to put the Navajo Prep bus driver in jeopardy so they talked about maybe rescheduling the game.

Of course that will be up to the New Mexico Activities Association. The governing board, however, will most likely not rescheduled the game since this game does not have a lot of weight to it, such as a district game.

In other words, the NMAA may consider this as a no-contest game.

Prior to the cancellation of the game, the Hawks were leading the contest at 8-0 but Navajo Prep was on the verge of completing its most successful drive.

The Eagles gained 34 yards and reached the Hawks’ 40-yard line before it was called off.

“For our fist game there are some things we can shape up,” Navajo Prep coach Storm Tallbull said. “It’s all about finding our rhythm. Once we find our rhythm I know we are going to be a great team. I have full confident in my staff and I have full confident in my team.”

Laguna-Acoma coach Roger Cordova shared that same sentiment as both teams combined for 10 turnovers, which include two fumbles by the host team.

“Our offense never got in a rhythm,” Cordova said. “We had a ton of mistakes. We fumbled on that first play and we made some key penalties.”

---