The Sundown Roughnecks football team recently wrapped up their season, losing 40-12 against Wink in the Bi-District Round of the playoffs.
The Roughnecks finished their season with a record of 4-7 overall and 3-2 in district, which is their best season in a few years, as they eclipsed the three-win total for the first time since 2021.
This season as a team Sundown averaged 23 points per game, surrendered 30 points per game, and recorded 139 first downs, 1,582 rushing yards, 29 rushing touchdowns, 1,239 passing yards, five passing touchdowns, nine fumble recoveries, 12 interceptions and 849 total return yards.
As far as individual statistical leaders go, sophomore Jeremiah Reyes was the Roughnecks leading rusher with 121 carries for 510 yards and four touchdowns, followed by freshman Cooper Day with 72 carries for 365 yards and five touchdowns and senior Coen Nevarez, who led the team in rushing touchdowns with 10.
Sophomore Marco Landa was Sundown’s leading passer with 1,206 passing yards, four touchdowns and nine interceptions, with a 44% completion rate.
Landa’s leading receiver was Coen Nevarez with 506 yards and a touchdown on 30 receptions, followed by senior Nathan McAdams with 14 receptions for 155 yards and junior Ryan Pope with five receptions for 131 yards.
Senior Braiden Lara, junior Brock Bufe and Ethan Morales all had touchdown catches this season as well.
Defensively, Sundown was superb at forcing turnovers with 21 total, starting with junior Gordon Mata, senior Dago Chagoya, Coen Nevarez and Braiden Lara, all of whom had two interceptions this season.
Cooper Day and junior Andrew Rodriguez both had an interception for a touchdown, and Ryan Pope and junior Corey Pormanes both had an interception a piece.
Braiden Lara led the team with three fumble recoveries, followed by junior Brayden Longoria with two, sophomore Aiden Brinklow and junior Kolt McDaniel who both had a fumble recovery for a touchdown, and senior Toby Lopez and Dago Chagoya both with a single fumble recovery.
On special teams, Sundown’s kickoff return unit led the way behind Ryan Pope with 15 returns for 351 yards and Corey Pormanes with 12 returns for 255 yards.
On punt return, Braiden Lara had five returns for 31 yards and Coen Nevarez had 10 returns for 23 yards. Lara also was the team’s best punter with 26 punts for 741 yards and a long of 50 yards.
On kickoff, Toby Lopez had 29 kicks for 714 yards and Corey Pormanes had 17 kicks for 479 yards and a touchback. Cooper Day was also the lone Roughneck to record a blocked kick this season.
Many of Sundown’s individual standouts received 2A-District 3 First-Team All-District honors including Coen Nevarez as a utility player, Jeremiah Reyes at running back, Nathan McAdams at tight end and outside linebacker, senior Christian Quintana at offensive line, Andrew Rodriguez at defensive line and senior Trevor Bridges at inside linebacker.
Congratulations not only to all those athletes, but the entire Sundown Roughnecks football program on an awesome season.