The Sundown Roughnecks kicked off their season against the Shamrock Fighting Irish this past Thursday in Canyon where they would lose, 38-34 .
In the first quarter of the game, Sundown put up the first points of the game off of a run to get the Roughnecks the early 6-0 lead after their kick was no good.
Shamrock answered back after they drove down the field through the air ripping off huge chunks at a time to get them into the endzone. The Irish were able make the two-point conversion to take an 8-6 lead.
On the ensuing kickoff, Sundown had a mistake with communication when two players ran into each other going for the ball.
The ball would go back to the Fighting Irish with great field position to start. Despite great positioning, the Sundown defense held strong as they got the ball back for their offense after holding Shamrock for four downs.
Sundown was able to move the ball down the field, but did not do much as the Shamrock defense adjusted to the Roughnecks run game and stopped them in their tracks with the game score still sitting at 8-6.
On the Shamrock’s next offensive possession they were able to draw the Sundown defense offsides where the quarterback from the Fighting Irish made defenders miss and got into the endzone off of a broken play to make the score 14-6 after a failed two-point conversion.
For the start of the second quarter both teams were having a hard time getting anything going as they remained scoreless for most of the quarter.
The Shamrock offense would eventually hit a huge pass over the top of Sundown to score another touchdown and make the score 20-6, after another missed two point conversion.
Sundown got the ball back after the touchdown where they were stopped once again and had to punt the ball away to the Shamrock’s explosive offense.
With the extra possession, the Fighting Irish broke off another big run with a quarterback scramble with 2:09 left in the half to get them another score and push their lead to 26-6.
With all of the momentum on Shamrock’s side, the Sundown team came out on fire in the second half.
For the start of the third quarter, Shamrock started with the ball, but couldn’t get going offensively and gave the ball up to the Roughnecks.
Sundown’s offense would score almost immediately off of another run to make the score 2612, after not getting their two point conversion.
Although the Sundown’s team was starting to come alive the Shamrock offense didn’t stop adding onto their lead after they put together a good drive, pushing the ball up the field to make the score 32-12 off of a big pass with 2:23 left in the third quarter.
After the big score from the Fighting Irish, the Sundown offense was able to connect on a deep pass over the top of the Shamrock defense.
Following the big play, Sundown would punch it in the endzone with a run up the middle to make the score 32-20, with 59 seconds left in the third quarter.
For the start of the final quarter, Shamrock took a lot of the time off the clock as they scored with 9:37 left in the quarter making the score 28-20, after another missed two point conversion.
Sundown’s next drive consisted of them passing but couldn’t get much done as they had to give the ball back to the Shamrock offense.
The Roughneck defense would come up big with an interception on the Shamrock offense and punch it into the endzone quickly while grabbing the two point conversion to make the score 38-28, with 7:51 left in the game.
After the huge momentum shift the Sundown defense got a big stop on the Fighting Irish offense to put them in scoring range.
The Roughnecks would complete a pass off of a screen for a touchdown to make the score 38-34 with 4:26 left in the game after a failed two point conversion.
Although the Sundown Roughnecks were able to get close at the end they were oneyard short of the first down on the final possession of the game to give them a loss on their season opener.
The Roughneck offense did well as they had 174 yards on the ground with Marcus Solis leading the team in rushing with 48 yards. Coen Nevarez had 38 yards, Adan Escamilla had 31, Brayson Frey had 30, Toby Lopez had 13, Gabriel Sanchez had eight, Dago Chagoya had three, Rayden Flores had two and Braiden Lara had one. Frey rushed for two touchdowns while Solis had one of his own on the ground.
Through the air attack Escamilla passed for 220 yards with one touchdown and no interceptions out of 23 attempts.
The leading receiver for the Roughnecks was Briar Miller as he had 65 yards. Ethan Morales had 46 yards, Lara had 44, Zayden Lopez had 37 and Solis had 28 on the night. The only receiver to catch a touchdown pass was Morales.
On the defensive side of the ball the Sundown defense held the Shamrock offense to 469 yards on offense with 317 coming off of the ground and the rest of the 152 yards going through the air. The Ruoghneck defense had one takeaway in the game coming off of an interception from Nevarez.
The Sundown Roughnecks start off their season 0-1 as they get ready to take on Lubbock Christian at home this Friday at 7 p.m.