The Scorpions’ stout defense and explosive special teams gave them a solid Homecoming victory over one of the team’s conference rivals.

The Sedona Red Rock High School Scorpions [4-3] protected their house from the Hopi High School Bruins [4-3] on Friday, Oct. 5, beating them by a resounding 57-28.

“It feels good, especially coming off of that close game against Payson [last week],” SRRHS quarterback Keenan Crans said. “We just couldn’t capitalize on all of our drives [against Payson]. We had four drives in the red zone and three within the 10, and we couldn’t capitalize. We all had grudges from last game, and it carried over to this game.”

The Scorpions held their own against Payson High School [4-3], a school twice the size of SRRHS with a history of consistently producing a strong football team. On Sept. 28, the Scorpions trailed 3-0 going into the fourth quarter, but ended up losing 17-0 after two late Longhorn touchdowns.

That adrenaline of strong play, however, carried over into Friday night’s game, and Hopi took the brunt of Sedona’s hunger to win.

Hopi started the game with the ball, but the Sedona defense held Hopi to fourth down deep in Bruins’ territory. Crans blocked the punt, and the Scorpions recovered the ball on the Bruins’ 9-yard line. On Sedona’s first possession, senior running back Ryan Ramirez ran for a 9-yard touchdown. The extra point kick by sophomore Max Hauserman was good, and the Scorpions were up 7-0 within the first two minutes of the game.

On the Scorpions’ second possession, Crans fumbled the ball after a hard hit but freshman Derrick Johnson was quick to recover it. After a couple of incomplete passes, Crans broke through the line of scrimmage and ran 63 yards into the end zone for Sedona’s second touchdown.

The Scorpion defense, led by seniors Zane Saxman and Jacob Moore, was just as forceful as it was in last week’s game, barely allowing the Bruins to advance the ball and forcing them to give the ball up to Sedona on down turnovers.

For the full story, please see the Wednesday, Oct. 10, issue of the Red Rock News.