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By N. Waddell
The Hayden Lobos’ football game at Mesa Prep last Friday turned into a complete disaster for the Lobos. After holding the Monsoon offense to three plays and a punt after the opening kick-off, the Lobo offense looked dominating moving the football down the field until they ran out of downs.
The two teams exchanged possessions a couple of more times until the Monsoons struck the first blow scoring a touchdown on a 28 yard run with 4:03 showing on the first quarter clock and took a 0 to 6 lead when the two point play was stopped.
It was a defensive battle for the rest of the first half with the Lobo defense bending but not breaking and the Lobo offense shooting themselves in the leg with fumbles and penalties to go into the half time break trailing the Mesa Prep Monsoons 0 to 6.
The third quarter was difficult for the Lobos. First, they lost the serves of one of their top players when Adrian Ochoa, a tough running back and a hard-hitting linebacker, went out of the game when he aggravated an ankle injury he suffered earlier in the week.
The injury might keep him out of action for the remainder of the season. Then it started; fumble after fumble on crucial downs and penalties to negate good runs.
Early in the third period on the third play after the kick-off, a Roman Padilla pass was intercepted by the Monsoons and on the attempted runback; they fumbled the football with Aaron Lagunas recovering for the Lobos.
The Lobos repaid the favor. On a run by Padilla, he fumbled the football with the Monsoon defensive player picking up the football and running it back 25 yards for a defensive touchdown.
The two-point play was stopped giving Mesa a 0 to 12 lead at 9:34 of the third quarter. The fumbles continued, the penalties continued and you could see momentum wearing a green Monsoon jersey.
Again, fumble after fumble kept stopping the Lobo offense and coupled with the flags against the Lobos, the Mesa Prep offense took advantage as a disheartened Lobo team could do nothing right. With time running out and the Monsoons ahead 0 to 32, the Monsoon coaches thought that 32 points was not enough with less than a minute to play and took advantage of the young Lobos now in the game to score another touchdown to win the game 0 to 38.
Ten fumbles during the game coupled with eleven penalties was just too much for the Lobos to overcome. The loss of Ochoa did not help.
The Lobos are done with road games with the next three games on home field starting this Friday when the Sentinels of the Arizona School for the Deaf and Blind come to Lalo Serrano Lobo Stadium for a contest with the kick-off set for 7:00 p.m.
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