Yuma High School’s football team is hoping a bye week helps lead to saying good-bye to a two-game losing streak.
Yuma has this week off after finishing non-conference play with a 2-2 record. The former Indians have been shutout in their last two games, the latest being a 28-0 loss at Class 2A Brush last Friday.
They open 1A North Central play on September 29 at Wiggins.
Yuma won its first two games by a combined 60-16, but has since been outscored 42-0. The last time Yuma football was shutout in back-to-back games was in 2019 against Holyoke and Limon. That team rallied with three straight wins to close the regular season, over Wiggins, Burlington and Wray, to make the playoffs.
The recent skid has dropped the Yuma Football Team to No. 17 in 1A in the MaxPreps Rankings. Limon is No. 1, Holyoke No. 2, Wray No. 8 and Wiggins No. 9. Even Burlington with a 1-3 record is above Yuma among NCC teams sitting at No. 14. Banning Lewis, which beat Yuma 14-0 two weeks ago, is 4-0 and No. 12.
Everyone in the NCC except Limon is off this week after wrapping up non-conference play last weekend. Holyoke, 4-0, rolled past Hershey, Nebraska, 43-6 last Thursday. Wray, 3-1, bounce back with a 41-6 home win over Ellicott last Friday. Wiggins held off 2A Platte Valley 22-15 last Saturday. Burlington lost 21-14 to Lamar.
Limon had its bye week, and now closes out non-conference play Saturday afternoon at home against Buena Vista, which is 4-1 and No. 3 in 1A, in the featured game of the week in the classification.
Yuma never could get rolling offensively last Friday at Brush.
The Yuma Football Team had the ball first, but had to punt. Brush then employed its power running game to march to Yuma’s 14-yard line. The Beetdiggers then did a bit of trickeration, with a halfback pass from Eric Rico to Hunter Proctor resulting in a touchdown.
Yuma did move the ball a bit, and a punt put Brush on its own 12-yard line in the second quarter. However, the Beetdiggers started going to the pass during its next possession, eventually resulting in Rico’s 22-yard touchdown pass to Alizar Acosta.
Brush led 14-0 at haltime.
The Beetdiggers made it it 21-0 in the third, capping a scoring drive with Cole Curtis’ 1-yard TD plunge.
They then put the finishing touch in the fourth when they blocked a punt and returned it for a touchdown.
Yuma did get as deep at Brush’s 13-yard line in the second half, but could not convert the opportunity into points.
Yuma did not help itself with multiple holding calls on offense. Yuma ended up with nine penalties for 75 yards, but Brush was not any better with eight penalties for 95 yards.
Still, Brush finished with 313 total yards on offense, 199 rushing and 114 passing. Yuma had 168 total yards, 127 rushing and 41 passing.
Jonathan Thomson ran for 80 yards on 19 carries, Damien Kosinski 28 yards one four carries, Trey Stegman one carry for 13 yards and Marvin Duarte six rushing yards. Thomson completed three of eight passes for 41 yards. Hugo Montes had one catch for 24 yards, and Kosinski two for 17 yards.
Defensively, Thomson was in on six total tackles, Adrian Carranza 4.5, Stegman 4.5, Reyli Trejo 3.5, Brody Sheffield 3, Duarte 3, David Covarrubias 2.5, Montes 2, Daden Beauprez 1.5, and Pablo Becerra, Bridger Lynch, and Kosinski one each.
