MONTE VISTA – It was a battle of a pair of Pirate teams as 10^th-ranked Monte Vista High School hosted Pagosa Springs Friday at Harvey Sullivan Field.

Monte Vista trailed at halftime but came alive in the second half as it sank the other Pirates. Monte Vista won by a score of 42-21.

“We talked at halftime and nobody panicked in the half,” said Monte Vista coach Manny Wasinger. “That wasn’t us in the first half defensively in particular. We’ve played really good defense, even though our record didn’t reflect it at 1-2. But we’ve been playing really good defense. We’d given up one offensive score in those three games. We had a hard time with Colton Lucero, he’s special and I really like that kid. We had a hard time bottling him up and Alex Pacheco got away from us a couple of times. But in the second half, we locked into our keys on defense and we did a much better job. Once we were able to separate a little bit with the big plays downfield to Azariah Hurtado, Jeremiah McComas and Kelby Mondragon, those three big plays put Pagosa in a position to play catch-up.”

Pagosa had the ball first but went three-and-out. After a short punt, Monte Vista took over at its own 47 and went 53 yards on eight plays. Mondragon capped off the drive with a 5-yard run, and McComas kicked in the extra point for a 7-0 lead.

Pagosa wasted little time tying the game as Pacheco went 49 yards down the left sideline for a touchdown. Hudson Mazur made the point-after to deadlock the score with 4:50 left in the first quarter.

Monte Vista then went on a long drive and advanced to the Pagosa 24 before stalling. It came away empty as it missed a 44-yard field goal attempt.

Pagosa punted again on its next possession and after another short punt, Monte Vista took control at its own 40.

Monte Vista then went on a 13-play, 60-yard drive which ended with Manny Jiron throwing a 9-yard touchdown to Domyon Naranjo. McComas missed the extra point and Monte Vista led 13-7.

Pagosa got a long kickoff return from Lucero, and Lucero and Pacheco had two long runs to put it into scoring position. Lucero ended the drive with an 8-yard touchdown, and Mazur booted the extra point to give Pagosa a 14-13 lead at halftime.

Monte Vista had the first possession of the second half and wasted little time to regain the lead. Manny Jiron threw a 42-yard pass to Kobe Jiron to set Monte Vista up, and Mondragon ran in from one yard out. Monte Vista went for two points and was successful and Manny Jiron pitched to Mondragon who powered into the end zone and a 21-14 lead.

Pagosa attempted to tie the score, but Hurtado intercepted a long pass by Creede Dozier to give Monte Vista the ball at its own 24.

On the next play Manny Jiron threw a pass to McComas. A Pagosa defender tipped the pass, but McComas grabbed the ball and completed a 76-yard touchdown pass. McComas made the point-after for a 28-14 lead.

Pagosa again was victimized by another short punt on its next possession and Monte Vista took control on its own 47. Mondragon ran 38 yards to put Monte Vista into scoring position, and Chayse Bouet ran into the end zone from 15 yards out. McComas again converted the extra point fir a 35-14 advantage.

Pagosa responded with another touchdown with Dozier scoring on the quarterback keeper. Mazur made the point-after to cut the deficit to 35-21.

Monte Vista recovered a fumble to set up its last touchdown. Jon Enderle scored on a 6-yard run and McComas made the extra point.

Monte Vista had 414 yards of total offense – 251 rushing and 163 passing. Manny Jiron completed five of nine passes for 163 yards. Kobe Jiron was the leading receiver with two catches for 79 yards and McComas had one reception for 76 yards.

Mondragon led the ground game with 166 yards on 30 carries.

Pagosa had 251 total yards with 234 coming on the ground, Lucero had 110 yards on 17 carries, and Pacheco had 84 on seven carries.

Dozier completed only one pass for 17 yards with Kasen Limebrook being the only receiver to record a catch. Dozier was also intercepted twice.

Monte Vista (2-2) will have this week off before resuming play at Center in the South-Central League opener for both teams. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

“Next week is about becoming better football players,” Wasinger said. “We’ll spend a lot of time on fundamentals and getting healthy. We haven’t been healthy since the first half of the Alamosa game. I think we’ll be close to 100% by the time league play starts in two weeks. Our goal is to get healthy and play better.”

Monte Vista 42, Pagosa Springs 21

Pagosa Springs 7 7 7 0 – 21

Monte Vista 7 6 22 7 – 42

First quarter

MV – K. Mondragon 5 run (McComas kick), 7:00

PS – Pacheco 49 run (Mazur kick), 4:50

Second quarter

MV – D. Naranjo 9 pass from M. Jiron (kick failed), 3:28

PS – Lucero 8 run (Mazur kick), 0:35

Third quarter

MV – K. Mondragon 1 run (K. Mondragon run), 9:04

MV – McComas 76 pass from M. Jiron (McComas kick), 6:40

MV – Bouet 15 run (McComas kick), 3:43

PC – Dozier 2 run (Mazur kick), 0:06

Fourth quarter

MV – Enderle 6 run (McComas kick), 4:39