Warriors football dismantle No. 4 Hatch Valley 55-0

No. 1 Socorro steamrolled No. 4 Hatch Valley as the Warriors recorded their fifth shutout of the season 55-0 on Oct. 14 after what might have been considered by some as a gridiron insult.

The Bears turned over the ball on the second play of their initial possession, but Socorro failed to score and gave the ball up on downs. The Warriors’ defense forced a fourth down, and Hatch elected not to punt from its 25.

The result was a Marcus Armijo score on a six-yard run, but when Hatch repeated its no-punt performance — the game’s temperature heated up.

Was Hatch’s not punting while deep in their territory a perceived insult to the Warriors?

Coach Damien Ocampo was thoughtful and paused before giving his response.

“At first, not so much disrespect. At first thought to myself, it’s a lot of confidence in their offense,” Ocampo said. “But the second time they did it, it surprised me. Maybe they felt like if they didn’t get this thing moving that it wasn’t going to be, they wouldn’t have a chance.”

It turned out the Bears didn’t have a chance, and while Ocampo is the ever-wise statesman as a coach, his Warriors turned up their level of play. Socorro’s players felt slighted, and Ocampo and his staff kept reminding the Warriors about “not talking back” and maintaining their calm.

“Man, we didn’t play good mentally, but I’ll tell you what, we played hard, and we did the intangible things that it was going to take for us to win tonight,” Ocampo said. “Put everything aside, not getting caught up with the hype (No. 1 vs. No. 4), and play hard. And even though we didn’t execute well all the time, we played hard.

The only thing that wasn’t working for Socorro was the entire configuration on one of the stadium’s four light poles was out. A small, lightweight light trailer was brought in to help compensate for the loss of candle power.

Nonetheless, the Warriors had no problems finding their way into the end zone.

A wide-open Alex Amaro gathered in a 30-yard catch from Armijo and the second of Kaden Dow’s seven extra-point kicks split the uprights for a 14-0 lead.

Forcing the Bears to punt away their next possession, the Warriors were up 21-0 after just one play and Armijo’s 50-yard TD sprint.

Caden Moreland provided the next three highlights as he scored on a 1-yard run, sacked the Bears’ QB for a significant loss, and then gathered in a pass for a second score.

Two Bears sandwiched middle linebacker Brian Armijo, but they couldn’t beat him to a Hatch fumble that he recovered in the end zone and a 42-0 advantage. He then added a 30-yard gallop to paydirt to put the game at 48-0, but Socorro didn’t go for the kill and a 50-point mercy ruling.

Ocampo explained his reasoning behind finishing the contest the way the Warriors did.

“These kids do a lot, and they work hard. Some of our backups worked their butts off and deserved to play. I’m not a big fan of getting games called. The kids work hard and deserve to be out there playing,” Ocampo said.

Sophomore receiver Isaiah Ocampo finished the night under center and provided the night’s final score on a 30-yard run.

Now the Warriors must avoid the distractions of homecoming and playing host to Hot Springs.

“I’ll tell you what homecoming, our kids have always played well at homecoming. I know they’ll be fired up. They’re going to play well. My worry is the lull after homecoming. Like we’ve traditionally always had a lull right after homecoming. And so that’s what I’m worried about,” Ocampo said.