What a difference a year makes

Considering last year’s 45-0 loss at Espanola McCurdy and a fourth quarter football brawl that ended the game early in the fourth quarter is history, Santa Fe Indian School, under new head coach Bill Moon, emerged victorious this time at home against the Bobcats Friday night.

It was a 40-34 comeback win after McCurdy led 14-0 after one quarter, but after the Braves surged to a 22-20 halftime lead and up 34-27 after three quarters, it was sophomore running back Taylor Torivio racing 18 yards with 3:06 remaining to break a 34-34 tie and bring Indian School an exciting 40-34 triumph.

Torivio was again impressive. He’s his team’s leading rusher, has scored its most  points, and makes the big plays on both ends of the ball. This was his second touchdown of the tilt, while senior teammate Finxy Moringdove reached the end zone three times as the one-two punch continued its winning ways and Indian School won its fourth of five starts.

The next stop is at winless Espanola Valley Friday night and Moon and his assistant coach Kevin Hauck are happy with the results.

Said Moon: “We keep getting better. We have a bunch of players who continue to shine, make big plays, and the seniors are setting a good example for the younger players.

“Within time, we will have a very good team here, maybe a district contender as we intend to upgrade the training room, advance the coaching tectonics and just improve the program.”

Against Espanola Valley, the Braves will face a team that is young, has 21 freshmen and 13 sophomores, and only five seniors. In its opener, it hung in there before losing 57-42, to Los Alamos, fell to Bernalillo, 54-0, was clobbered by unbeaten Socorro, 56-8, dropped a 64-14 contest to West Las Vegas, and were blanked 54-0 last week versus Robertson.

But Indian School has lost only on the road to undefeated Pojoaque Valley, has scored 160 points and allowed 136, is 3-0 at its new artificial turf stadium, and has combined an aggressive defense with a quality rushing attack.

Moon as usual brought Hauck along to assist him as he’s done before. This time, Hauck traded his role at St. Michael’s to assist Moon across town.