Sidewinders can't hang with Coyotes

SAN LUIS – San Luis may have had a chance to hang with Mesa-Skyline on Friday in a clash between the two football teams.

While the Coyotes offense scored on six of its first seven possessions, the Sidewinders had open receivers early, only to succumb to an avalanche of dropped, overthrown and underthrown passes in a 54-6 homecoming loss.

Skyline (4-1) scored on its first play from scrimmage after a San Luis (1-4) three-and-out – a 57-yard flea flicker from Mike Bailey to Matt Ditsworth.

It took Sidewinder quarterback Moises Ramirez time to get his passes on target, but when he did, there were drops – three in the first quarter. Ramirez completed two of his first seven passes for just seven yards.

“We knew we were going to have to pass a little more today,” San Luis coach Fernando Solano said. “They have a stout defense, and we started running the ball earlier, but there was nothing there. We tried to pass the ball and we had guys open, but we had dropped passes or overthrown passes. The game was open for us but we couldn’t take advantage of it.”

Down 21-0 early in the third, Edwin Carranza – quarterback to start the year for the Sidewinders – attempted a halfback pass that was dropped by an open Miguel Gomez. The two hooked up in the third quarter for a successful halfback pass, but that merely cut the score to 40-6.

“Not catching the ball, not getting the ball to the open guy hurt us,” Solano said. “We had a dropped halfback pass, he was wide open and he dropped it. That just kills our momentum and the whole energy we have.”

The Skyline offense was anchored by a pair of dangerous backs – Thomas Brown as the power back up the middle and Damari Lewis as the speed back to the outside. Both had 100 yards by the half.

Brown didn’t carry in the second half and saw time at quarterback. He finished with 135 yards and two touchdowns. Lewis had 238 yards on just seven carries and two touchdowns as four Coyotes had rushing touchdowns.

Carranza had 14 rushing yards to lead the Sidewinders. Ramirez finished the game 7-for-19 with 49 yards and only one completion longer than 10 yards.

The Sidewinders play their final non-region game next week at South Mountain before opening Gila Valley Region play at Kofa.