The Socorro Warriors took advantage of great field position and Pojoaque turnovers to make an early night of the season opener with a 50-0 win that ended under the mercy rule with 7:29 still left in the third quarter. The Warrior started with the opening possession at their own 46 and moved down the field before a deflected pass resulted in an interception that game the Elks their first possession at their own 5 yard line. On the Elks first offensive play they fumbled and the Warriors recovered at the 7 yard line. Quarterback Marcus Armijo ran the ball into the end zone for the first score of the game that was followed up with a two point conversion run in by Garrick Gutierrez to give the Warriors an 8-0 lead with 10:04 left in the first quarter. The Warrior then poured it on as they forced two more fumbles and Isaiah Ocampo got the Warriors first interception of the season. The Warrior defense also put points on the board with a safety. The Warriors scored 7 touchdowns on the evening, 5 on the ground and 2 through the air. Quarterback Marcus Armijo threw 2 touchdown passes to go along with his rushing score. Alex Amaro had a 21 yard touchdown reception and had 3 total catches for 32 yard. Damien Greenwood had a 34 yard touchdown reception that featured him breaking through some would be tacklers to find the end zone. Isaiah Ocampo also had a 30 yard catch. The Warriors ended up with 96 yards passing.
The leading rusher for the Warriors was Brian Armijo with 49 yards on 4 carries. Brian scored the game ending touchdown with a 41 yard scamper on the Warriors first possession of the 3rd quarter. Garrick Gutierrez had 42 yards on 3 carries, Marcus Armijo had 34 yards on 3 carries, and Alex Amaro had one carry for 15 yards. The Warriors had a total of 139 yards on 12 carries on the night. The Warriors had 235 yards of total offense. (All statistics are unofficial.)
The Warrior defense was outstanding, recovering 3 fumbles and picking off a pass. Kicker Kaden Dow assisted the defense by getting 5 kickoffs into the end zone to force Pojoaque to start from their 20 yard line. The Elks were unable to complete a pass against the Warriors as quarterback Adam Pacheco was under pressure from the Warriors on every pass attempt and was sacked on multiple occasions. The Elks could only muster 28 yards on the ground on 13 attempts.
The Warriors are now 1-0 and will travel to Santa Fe to take on Sante Fe Indian School on Saturday at 1 p.m.
