Wingate airs out the ball for first win of the season

WINGATE, N.M. – It was only a matter of time before the Wingate Bears tasted victory.

The Bears had lost six straight games before last Friday’s District 1-3A matchup with Shiprock, which remains winless at 0-5.

Wingate (1-6) altered its offense scheme to post a 52-36 in a rather entertaining game.

“We’ve definitely been in some close games, but a lot of people don’t realize how young we are,” Wingate coach AD Jim said. “We’re pretty youthful. My quarterback is a sophomore, my wingback is a sophomore, my wide receiver is a junior. Pretty much my whole backfield is coming back next year.”

The Bears aired out the ball as sophomore QB Ladanion Begay completed 22-of-32 passes for 341 yards and five touchdowns.

Senior slot receiver Arwin Thompson and sophomore wideout Zefferino Florres were Begay’s favorite targets. Florres caught nine passes for 166 yards and one TD while Thompson had eight receptions for 140 yards and three TD scores of 24-, 35- and 40-yards.

Thompson caught two of those TDs early in the game as Wingate opened a 20-0 lead with 11:21 left in the second quarter.

“I have to give our quarterback, Ladanion Begay, most of the credit,” Thompson said. “He was the one that helped us win the game. I’m just very happy that my teammates did their jobs tonight.

“It means a lot to get this first win for my senior year,” he added. “We have a good program with a good team, but we have a lot of underclassmen and most of our seniors are new this year. We all had to step up.”

Despite facing a three-score deficit, the visiting Chieftains cut Wingate’s lead down to 28-20 after a 13-yard TD run from senior Freedom Cobb with 1:38 left before halftime.

But the Bears capped the half with a no-huddle, 70-yard drive with Begay hitting senior Delroy Nez with a 13-yard TD. That drive took 1:17 to complete as Wingate took a 36-20 halftime cushion.

“I have to credit my assistant coach,” Wingate coach AD Jim said of offensive coordinator Aaron Jim. “He’s also my brother. He wanted to run a no-huddle offense, and I was against it. The good thing about having a good program is being able to rely on the coaching staff.

“He was the one that called that play, and that allowed us to march down the field,” he added. “It was very critical. I think if we got stopped and didn’t get that touchdown, the beginning of the third quarter would have been different.”

Shiprock coach Jeremy Wooten said that the TD drive was a heartbreaker as the Chieftains were looking to regain the momentum.

“That’s one of our weak areas, the DB position,” Wooten said. “We have a lot of guys out there that have never played football. It’s their first time playing, so they exposed that weakness of ours.”

Some of that inexperienced showed early in the contest as Shiprock turned over the ball three consecutive possessions, including a fumble on the very first snap of the game.

“I thought that we were evenly matched, but that fumble started it off,” Wooten said. “If we don’t fumble, we probably would have scored. The mental mistakes and penalties shot us in the foot but I’m proud of these guys.

“These dudes battled,” he added. “They played as hard as they could. This team (Wingate) was just a little better than us, but they learned, and they battled.”

In the second half, the two teams traded scores as the Bears maintained its two-score lead.

Thompson scored Wingate’s two TD as he caught a 40-yard reception from Begay to complete a 70-yard drive. In its next series, Thompson ran the final 21 yards that earned the Bears a 52-28 cushion with 11:37 left in the fourth quarter.

“We just had to keep scoring,” Thompson said of protecting its lead. “The defense also did a good job, too. But we made a couple of mistakes that we have to fix.”

Shiprock was led by Cobb as he rushed for 105 yards and three TD scores. The Chieftains also had junior running back Elijah Shorthair finish with 84 yards on 15 carries while senior quarterback Antonio James added 81 yards rushing.

All told, Shiprock racked up 315 yards of offense with 271 yards on the ground.

“That’s my forte, which is smash-mouth football,” Wooten said. “That is what I wanted. You know, our schedule with Kirtland, Cortez, and Moriarty was brutal for a rebuilding program.

“The kids didn’t see what we can do with our offense until tonight,” he added. “They were moving the ball and now they’ll get that confidence. I told the seniors that we want to get that legacy of winning our first district game in seven years.”

Wooten said winning a district game this season will help change the culture at Shiprock High.

“That’s our No. 1 goal,” he said. “I don’t care if we don’t make the playoffs. We got to change the narrative here. Our goal is to win one game. They’ll be the senior class that wins a district game, and the next senior class will try to win two.

“That is how we’re going to build,” Wooten added.

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