Football roundup: Buffaloes notch first district victory

Another weekend of area football has come and gone with yet another mixed bag of results.

Fort Sumner 24, Texico 8

TEXICO — The Wolverines knew they were facing a challenge when hosting unbeaten Fort Sumner/House on Friday.

That stated, the Wolves did well to keep it reasonably close against the Foxes on Friday night at Texico High School.

The Wolverines trailed only 10-0 at halftime, and were still only down 18-0 heading into the fourth quarter.

Ultimately, they lost by 16 and dropped their fourth straight after a 2-2 start. But they played hard in their District 6/7-2A opener against the district’s best.

“We just had some breakdowns on our punt team,” Texico head coach Pat Crowley said. “But the defense played exceptional.”

One of those punt-team breakdowns Crowley referred to resulted in a Fort Sumner safety. The other set Fort Sumner up in good field position.

Texico’s lone score came in the fourth quarter on a 27-yard touchdown pass from Gabe Dickerman to Anders Nelson, followed by a two-point conversion pass from Dickerman to Isaac Ortiz.

Crowley cited Ortiz for having a great game on both sides of the ball. But the coach was proud of his whole team for the way it played against one of the state’s top-notch squads.

Before the game, Crowley prepared the Wolverines to compete well against Fort Sumner/House.

“I told them, ‘Guys, we’ve just got to sell out and play our football,” Crowley said, “and they responded. By far, that was our best game this year as a whole.

“We had some breakdowns, but we went threw them (Saturday) on film and there’s nothing we can’t fix.”

Texico visits Santa Rosa this coming Friday, with kickoff time scheduled for 7 p.m.

Melrose 56, Dora 8

DORA — The Melrose Buffaloes are back.

Actually, the real Buffaloes didn’t go anywhere. They weren’t the same for about a month and a half, kind of like those Snickers bar commercials — they’re not themselves when they’re injured.

Friday, a healthy Melrose team went on the road and routed a good Dora squad. As a result, both teams emerged at 1-2 in Eight-Man District 3 play. The Coyotes fell to 5-3 overall, while Melrose halted its losing streak at five and improved to 2-5.

“It’s nice to have everybody where they can play. We haven’t had that all year,” Buffaloes first-year head coach Caleb King said. “We scrimmaged Logan (in the summer) and had everybody healthy, and from then on we haven’t had a full roster. We’ve always had at least two kids out every game since then, sometimes four.”

King hadn’t finished tallying all the big Melrose numbers as of Saturday afternoon, but said key players Tristan Sena, Tate Sorgen and Devon Bailey were among those healthy and having productive nights for Melrose.

Jake Pierce was one of the players who had been missing, and returned recently to spark Melrose a bit.

“When he came back, everybody was pretty pumped,” King said. “He kind of solidifies our defense and gives us an extra option on offense. We went form having an eighth-grader (in his positions), so that’s a big difference.”

Friday’s game was the last of three straight on the road for Melrose. The Buffaloes will host Gateway Christian this coming Friday, beginning at 7 p.m.

Springer 47, Floyd 38

SPRINGER — Coming off an unexpected bye week due to forfeit had a well-rested Floyd team hoping to cap off the long trip to Springer with a victory that would have lifted the Broncos to 2-2 in Six-Man District 1 play.

It was not to be for the Broncs, however, as they lost a high-scoring affair and dropped to 1-3 district, 2-4 overall.

Floyd will conclude its regular season this coming Friday with a 3 p.m. home game against San Jon/Grady.