No. 6 Montrose football powers past Grand Junction Central

The No. 6 Montrose Red Hawks (4-2) hosted the Grand Junction Central Warriors (2-4) Friday Sept. 29. Montrose had a steady offensive attack on their way to a 51-20 victory.

Starting off the game, the Warriors, starting on their own 20, moved all the way down and had a fourth and goal at the Red Hawks one. Junior Rodriguez then intercepted a pass and went 98 yards the other way for the touchdown. The kick was good and the Red Hawks led 7-0 at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter, Torrie Eckerman went 49 yards for the touchdown to make it 14-0. GJ Central answered when Cash Walker scored on a 20 yard pass from Devin Hickey, making it 14-6. Blake Griffin then went 55 yards to make it 21-6. With 14 seconds left in the first half, it was Eckerman again from 55 yards out, putting the score at 28-6 at halftime.

The teams traded touchdowns in the third quarter. Walker scored from 11 yards out on a pass from Hickey for the Warriors. Griffin then went 79 yards to set up a Red Hawks touchdown, as Chris Mock scored from the one. The kick was blocked  and it was 34-12.

Central kept the pressure on, as Hickey passed to Jaxon Gohn for a 46 yard score. Hickey then passed to Antonio Atencio for two points and it was 34-20. The Red Hawks recovered an onside kick attempt on the subsequent kickoff. The Red Hawks had a third and goal from the ten as the third quarter ended with the score 34-20.

Sandier Gaxiola-Leyva kicked a 44 yard field goal to extend Montrose’s lead to 37-20. On the ensuing drive, the Warriors had a fourth and four on the Red Hawks 46. The pass fell incomplete for a turnover on downs. Griffin then answered with a 56 yard touchdown, and after the Leyva kick, it was 44-20.

The Warriors then had another fourth down at midfield. The pass fell incomplete, and the Red Hawks took over at the 50. They then ran the ball to run time off the clock. Griffin took it from the 39 to the one, and Mock finished it off from the one. The kick was good was good and that completed the 51-20 final score.

“Always fun to play football in front of a home crowd,” Montrose head coach Brett Mertens stated. “I was proud of the boys for making plays when they needed to. I’d like to give credit to Central, it was a well played game. They frustrated us for a big portion of the game. Getting a win in front of a home crowd is always nice and we are certainly happy with the final outcome.”

“I think we played pretty good,” Austin Zimmer said. “We had some mess ups here and there that we need to focus on cleaning up. We are always striving to get better and work on things we need to fix. Our team has a real special bond and when things go wrong or get stressful, we do really god job of staying calm and picking each other up.”

“The kids played well,” Central head coach Brandon Milholland said. “We had missed tackles on defense and we will clean those up at practice. I was pleased with the drives we put together on offense. We finally found our passing game to go along with our tough running back Santana Martinez.”