Thoreau throttles T-birds in season opener

By Santiago Ramos Jr.
Special to the Times

THOREAU – Thoreau made quick work of visiting Zuni with a 52-0 mercy-rule thrashing on a cool Friday night in the season opener for both ball clubs.

Second year Thoreau head coach Erik Loera was pleased with his 10th win.

“I was happy with the win,” said Loera who guided the Hawks to a 9-3 record and into the state playoffs last year. “We struggled offensively. I credit this win to the defense. (The)defense won this game for us. Louis Bear Eagle is our defensive coach.

“He had these boys ready to play and they kept us in the game until our offense could get rolling. We scored 52 points, but we had a lot of turnovers. In the second half they got a little bit of butt chewing, and they came out and started playing. (At the) end of the game we put in our JV because I didn’t want to run up the score. We gave our younger kids a chance to play the whole fourth quarter.”

The Zuni T-Birds could not generate any offense as they were unable to pick up a single first down against the aggressive Hawk defense. Thoreau also had a successful onside kick.

Thoreau senior quarterback Isaac Bear Eagle shredded the T-Bird secondary as he threw for three touchdown passes while rushing for a fourth score in lighting up the new Hawks scoreboard.

Hawks senior fullback Tys Nelson ran for a pair of touchdowns while JV sophomore Elijah Becenti tallied the final score late in the game to end the contest on the 50-point mercy rule.

Bear Eagle, a lefty, accounted for Thoreau’s first two scores hitting senior tight end Elijah Trickey for 23 yards in the first quarter. That score capped off a five-play opening drive.

Thoreau made it 14-0 in the second quarter as Bear Eagle found junior receiver Ty Gaddy open for a 34-yard strike with 7:57 left in the first half.

The Hawks closed out the first half on a 1-yard quarterback sneak by Bear Eagle with 2:54 remaining that pushed the score to 20-0.

Thoreau’s Nelson took care of the next two Hawks touchdowns in the third quarter on scoring runs of 5 and 4 yards that made it 36-0 with a running clock. Nelson’s first TD came off a T-Bird turnover on a fumble recovery by the Hawks.

The T-Birds struggled to move the ball and gave up a two-point safety after a high snap on a punt that sailed out of the end zone with three minutes left in the third quarter giving the home team a 38-0 cushion.

Bear Eagle put the finishing touches on a solid opening game with a 44-yard touchdown pass to sophomore receiver Noah Trickey with just 30 seconds left in the third period as Thoreau erupted for 26 points against a weary Zuni defense.

With the reserves taking over for the Hawks in the final quarter, Becenti bullied his way into the end zone from 8 yards out with three minutes left in the game to end it with the 50-point mercy rule, 52-0.

“Offense we have to get better,” said Loera of the team’s two fumbles. “We got a lot of new kids. We just have to clean it up and hang on to the ball. But it’s nothing we can’t fix.”

The Hawks were without one of their running backs with senior Ray Long, who had 250 yards rushing against Zuni last year. Long is expected to be out for a month with a quad pull injury that happened during practice earlier in the week.

“We missed him,” Loera said. “It showed as we weren’t able to run the ball outside much and had a lot of fumbles.”

Thoreau also lost the services of safety Stenson Perry for the entire season with a broken arm from bull riding.

“He was a backup quarterback,” Loera said of Perry. “We got a lot of injuries but we have the numbers so we can plug in kids.”

Zuni senior quarterback Kole Eriacho was harassed the entire game by the solid Hawks defense, with three sacks along with a pair of interceptions and one fumble.

Thoreau (1-0) will host Tucumcari (1-0) Friday at home.

The Rattlers are coming off a 32-6 season-opening win over Mescalero Apache. Tucumcari sophomore quarterback Nicholas Romero completed 14 of 20 passes for 98 yards with one touchdown. Sophomore receiver Daymion Urioste grabbed 10 catches for 87 yards and one TD.

“The competition will go up with Tucumcari coming in and we need it too for us to improve,” Loera said. “We gotta win those bigger games. We beat Tucumcari 40-0 last year, but they have a new coach. They’ll be a different team. They have good athletes. It might be a little tougher.”

Zuni (0-1) will be on the road up to Cuba (1-0) Saturday afternoon for a 1 p.m. road game. The Rams edged Santa Fe Indian School 13-12 in their season opener.

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