MONTE VISTA – According to Monte Vista High School football coach Manny Wasinger, last week’s open date came at the right time for his team.

The extra week of practice allowed the Pirates to get ready for Peyton Friday at Harvey Sullivan Field. Monte Vista soundly defeated the Panthers 52-14.

“Peyton is a good football team,” Wasinger said. “Our bye week came exactly at the right time. We played a good nonleague schedule. Colorado Springs Christian and Gunnison were very good football teams and they exposed a lot of our weaknesses. Fortunately, we had two weeks to work on those things and game plan Peyton. The kids showed up and played really well. They did a great job this week on enjoying Homecoming week and also focused on winning a football game. I’m really, really proud of them.”

The Pirates kicked off to start the game and it appeared that the kick was going out of bounds. The ball stayed in play and a Peyton player hesitated, allowing a Monte Vista player to jump on the ball for good field position at the Panthers’ 20.

It didn’t take long for the Pirates to find the end zone as Jacob Pacheco ran the ball six yards for the touchdown. Pacheco also scored on the two-point conversion for an 8-0 lead.

Alex Marquez then picked up a Noah Martin fumble and returned it to the Peyton 20. Kevin Cisneros scored on the next play, and Jon Enderle scored on the two-point play for a 16-0 advantage.

The Panthers turned the ball over on downs the next time they had the ball, and the Pirates again put the ball into the end zone. Cisneros scored on a 36-yard run, and Kaden Madrid threw to Enderle on the conversion for a 24-0 lead.

After a short Panther punt, Monte Vista again had good field position at the Peyton 41. Pacheco took the ball 37 yards to the house two plays later. The two-point conversion attempt was unsuccessful and the Pirates led 30-0 at the end of the first quarter.

Another short punt put the Pirates on the Peyton 26 and Monte Vista scored two plays later on a 23-yard Pacheco run. Cisneros ran in the two-point play to extend the lead to 38-0.

An unsuccessful fake punt by the Panthers again gave the Pirates a short field as they took over on the Peyton 26. Madrid tossed a 16-yard scoring strike to Azaraiah Hurtado, but the two-point conversion was no good.

Monte Vista led 44-0 at halftime and the rest of the game was played under a running clock.

The Pirates managed one more touchdown in the third quarter as Madrid and Hurtado hooked up again, this time a 21-yard touchdown pass. Pacheco scored the two-point play for a 52-0 advantage.

The Panthers averted the shutout in the fourth quarter as Martin threw a 45-yard touchdown pass to Mickey Winter. Martin also ran in the two-point conversion.

Peyton scored again on the last play of the game as Martin tossed a 49-yard strike to Joseph Zimmerman. The two-point conversion was no good.

The Pirates accumulated 284 yards of total offense with 215 coming on the ground. Pacheco ran for 118 yards on 10 carries, and Cisneros had 87 yards on seven carries.

Madrid completed seven out of nine passes for 69 yards. Hurtado was his top receiver with three catches for 46 yards.

Peyton had 220 yards of total offense – 119 rushing and 101 passing.

Zimmerman was the Panthers’ top rusher with 48 yards on five carries.

Martin completed only three of 12 passes for 101 yards – 94 coming on the two late touchdown passes.

Monte Vista (2-2) will open South Central League play this coming Friday as it will host Del Norte.

“We came out of league play 2-2 with a good schedule,” Wasinger said. “We feel like we fixed some things the last week. Now we have to being 1-0 next week.”

Because of a shortage of game officials, the kickoff has been moved to 4 p.m.

Monte Vista 52, Peyton 14

Peyton 0 0 0 14 – 14

Monte Vista 30 14 8 0 – 52

First quarter

MV – Pacheco 6 run (Pacheco run), 10:16

MV – Cicneros 26 run (Enderle run), 9:17

MV – Cisneros 36 run (Enderle pass from Madrid), 2:00

MV – Pacheco 37 run (run failed), 0:08

Second quarter

MV – Pacheco 23 run (Cisneros run), 9:00

MV – Hurtado 16 pass from Madrid (run failed), 7:40

Third quarter

MV – Hurtado 21 pass from Madrid (Pacheco run), 4:17

Fourth quarter

P – Winter 45 pass from Martin (Martin run), 9:38

P – Zimmerman 49 pass from Martin (pass failed), 0:00