West Mesa gets first win
Mustangs able to overcome mistakes to beat Rio Grande
There were enough mistakes to leave West Mesa High School football coach Anthony Ansotigue shaking his head in exasperation on Thursday night.
The scoreboard at the north end of Nusenda Community Stadium somewhat soothed his mood, however.
West Mesa 38, Rio Grande 6. “We’re still making lots of mistakes, and we’re still going through lots of growing pains,” Ansotigue said after West Mesa’s first victory of the 2019 season. “(But) this is big for our confidence. We were down in the dumps because we played so poorly (early in the season).”
West Mesa had only generated 13 total points in losses to Eldorado, Centennial and Mayfield. Rio Grande helped get the Mustangs a little more healthy.
Junior tailback Ja’Calvin Newsom scored two touchdowns on runs of 33 and 9 yards for the Mustangs (1-3), who pulled away from Rio Grande (1-3) with a 21-point fourth quarter on West Mesa’s homecoming night.
“That’s Ja’Calvin,” Ansotigue said. “He’s running like himself. He’s running smooth, making good cuts. … We just have to find him a little bit of daylight.”
The game was very much in doubt when the last quarter began, West Mesa holding a tentative 17-6 lead in a game that was frequently bogged down by penalties on both sides and the Mustangs making very little headway against the Rio Grande defense in a scoreless third quarter.
The breathing room was supplied early in the fourth quarter, when quarterback Daniel Ayala
lofted a 64-yard touchdown pass to Mark Gutierrez for a 24-6 lead.
For his part, Newsom made really only committed one glaring error, and that was not realizing what the final score was.
“It’s amazing,” Newsom said. “Everyone doubted us, but we came out and beat them 30-6.” 38-6, he was told.
“38-6! Oh,” he said, smiling. Newsom’s 33-yard touchdown run early in the second quarter — on a first-and-21 — for the Mustangs put West Mesa in front 14-6. Elijah Espinoza booted a 31-yard field goal on the final play of the first half for West Mesa.
Ten times in the first half, the Mustangs ran plays on first, second and third down with huge yardages needed because of penalties.
“If we can even cut those mistakes in half, we can be competitive,” Ansotigue said.
Rio Grande finished with 105 yards of total offense — its one score was on a punt return — and 105 yards worth of penalties.
West Mesa was flagged 11 times for 113 yards, and there were half a dozen instances in which the Mustangs didn’t have enough players on the field.
For the Ravens, there were a couple of highlights.
Gabe Padilla gave the special teams a jolt when he returned a poor West Mesa punt 70 yards for a first-quarter touchdown that cut the West Mesa lead to 7-6.
Also, the Ravens sacked Ayala six times.
“If we can protect him,” Ansotigue said, “he can deliver.”
Brandon Kenton and Joseph Thompson also had touchdown runs for West Mesa.