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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- It finally feels like football season.
Volcano Vista and Sandia kicked off Scrimmage Week with a spirited contest Friday afternoon at Nusenda Community Stadium as the Hawks and Matadors ran their offensive and defensive units through a variety of controlled situations.
In the first half, each team ran about 30 to 40 plays from the 40-yard line. Regardless of the gain, the ball was returned to the 40 for every snap. Volcano had early success running the football before completing some passes over the middle. Sandia started sluggishly until they managed to break off a couple of long runs.
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The second half of the scrimmage played out more like a real football game as each team possessed the ball with an opportunity to drive down the field. After stifling Sandia, the Volcano offense started at the 35 and quickly drove into Sandia territory. But they were eventually stopped and Sandia took over at the 5-yard line.
Volcano Vista got the ball back at midfield and combining a couple of short passes with the ground game, methodically moved into the red zone. However, Sandia intercepted a pass around the 10-yard line to deny the Hawks.
That was the closest either team came to scoring in the second half.
Following the takeaway, the Matadors drove as far as the VV 33, but were left empty-handed when a long pass downfield sailed over the head of a wide open receiver racing down the right sideline. A sack on fourth down ended the possession.
Overall, Volcano Vista coach Chad Wallin took positives and negatives from the Hawks performance over the course of the 90-minute scrimmage.
“After watching that, we have a lot of work to do,” Wallin said. “Thankfully, it’s things that are fixable like effort, how hard we play, technique. We have to fall back to the basics of football. We just have to do a better job. We had problems in areas that many teams are having problems with like protections, tackling, not going around blocks on defense. Defensively, we were average. We missed some tackles. We have work to do.”
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Volcano Vista opens the 2017 season two weeks from Saturday with a 1 p.m. game against Valley at Nusenda Community Stadium. The Hawks compete in the rugged District 1-6A along with Rio Rancho, Cleveland, Cibol and Piedra Vista. Volcano Vista’s non-district slate features matchups against Eldorado and Mayfield.
“We need every practice (before the season starts),” Wallin said.
Volcano Vista quarterback Austin Blaisure said the Hawks offense has made “a lot” progress since the Metro Passing League in June, but recognizes his team has plenty of areas to improve on such as conditioning, picking up blitzes, running crisper routes and recognizing when a pass is coming.
“All of the 7-on-7 we did throughout the summer really created a connection between me as the quarterback and the wide receivers. We have a lot of different components to the offense and everything is coming together nicely.”
Running back Moses Young proved difficult for the Sandia defense to bring down as he snapped off several runs of 10 or more yards for the Hawks. If he is able to consistently crank out the yardage on the ground, Blaisure knows that should open up passing lanes downfield.
“I thought he did a great job,” Blaisure said. “We’re expecting a lot out of our running backs this year. We have a good core. Moses has done well. If we can get that run game going, we can pop a pass and it will work all game long.”
