Moriarty Blank Sundevils in Five-Touchdown Scrimmage Performance

MORIARTY, N.M. — A five-touchdown performance and a shutout on defense would leave most high school football coaches beaming. For Moriarty head coach Gabriel Romero, Thursday’s scrimmage against Española Valley provided plenty of highlight-reel plays, but more importantly, a baseline measurement for where his team stands entering the regular season.

The Pintos dominated the Sundevils, crossing the goal line five times while keeping Española Valley off the board completely. The explosive afternoon featured a pair of long touchdown runs from Mario Romero, a touchdown pass from Devin Ortiz to Jayden Carlson, and another short goal-line punch-in by Romero following a deep pass from Ortiz to Royce Dennisson. Dennisson also added a rushing touchdown of his own to round out the scoring.

Despite the lopsided scoreline, Coach Romero maintained a pragmatic view of his team’s performance.

“I thought for the most part we’re probably about where we kind of thought we were going to be,” Romero said following the scrimmage. “Obviously it’s the first competition and we kind of went in a little blind, not knowing exactly what they were going to do… We had some of those missed assignments that we need to clean up, but I thought we were where we expected to be right now.”

Moriarty’s defensive unit delivered a shutout, consistently forcing stalled drives, though Romero noted room for improvement up front—particularly after Española Valley tested the Pintos’ secondary more than anticipated.

“Our defense played well, but we’ve got to get a little bit more pressure on the quarterback,” Romero said. “Sometimes he had too much time to sit back there and look at things. If we get more pressure, then that helps our coverage out.”

Offensively, the Pintos displayed big-play potential throughout the afternoon, but Romero sees room to refine their consistency ahead of the regular-season opener.

“We had a couple of big plays, but there’s a couple other plays where we’re one block away,” Romero said. “Those five-yard runs turn into 15-yard runs if we can just get to the point where everybody’s getting their assignment and sticking on their blocks.”

The scrimmage capped off a grueling preseason stretch marked by unseasonably hot afternoon double-sessions and multiple weather delays.

“Unfortunately, this week we had to go inside two times because of lightning,” Romero noted. “Our kids handled the heat well. We talk about how we’re going to play in all kinds of elements and they’ve got to be prepared… These guys just attacked every single practice.”

With the scrimmage in the rearview mirror, Moriarty now turns its full attention to its regular-season opener next Friday on the road against Thoreau High School—a program that has amassed three nine-win seasons over the past four years.

While outside expectations surrounding the Pintos continue to build, Romero is keeping his squad focused strictly on self-improvement and taking things one week at a time.

“We haven’t really even talked much about opponents or anything like that—it was more about us just focusing on getting better,” Romero said. “We told them the other day: nobody’s ever won a state championship after the first week or two of days. We just got to make sure that we continue to improve daily and weekly, and hopefully we can make a good run.”