EL PASO It was one of those games where things simply didn’t go right for the Odessa High football team.

The Bronchos fell behind quickly in the first half against El Paso Montwood and never recovered, losing 51-14 in a nondistrict game Thursday afternoon at the Socorro ISD Student Activities Complex.

“I talked all week about Montwood being a good team,” Odessa High head coach Danny Servance said. “They were motivated, they played with a chip on their shoulder and we just couldn’t get anything going.”

The story in the first half was the offense as Montwood (2-2) scored touchdowns on its first four possessions while Odessa High (1-3) managed just 18 yards of offense in the first quarter.

The Rams got it done early with the arm of Sebastian Galvan, who opened the scoring with a 4-yard connection to Yamil Oaxaca with 9:08 remaining in the first quarter.

After the Bronchos went three-and-out, Montwood struck quickly as Galvan found Sal Soto on a screen pass and he took it 50 yards to the end zone to build a 14-0 lead.

It was the Christopher Ramos show from there as he capped off the next two drives with touchdown runs of 10 and 57 yards, respectively.

The 57-yarder came after Montwood safety Neal Cardiel intercepted an Odessa High pass near the end of the first quarter.

After being blown out 72-7 last week at Midland Lee, head coach Ariel Famaligi was pleased with how his team bounced back.

“I’m breathing a huge sigh of relief right now,” Famaligi said. “I wanted to see how our kids were going to respond and it was very encouraging for our kids to come out and be as focused and play with as much energy as we did.”

Late in the first half, however, it appeared that Odessa High was going to get back into the game after Galvan was intercepted by Jayden Carrillo and returned to the Montwood 23.

Despite a 15-yard personal foul penalty moving the Bronchos back, the offense found a way on the board as Ivan Miranda connected with Dre Cobb on a 14-yard touchdown with three minutes left in the half.

Cobb finished with eight catches for 75 yards.

Odessa High looked to cut the deficit even more when the Rams snapped the ball over the punter’s head and the Bronchos had the ball at the 5-yard line.

Odessa High, however, were not able to cash, missing a field goal to end the first half.

“That swung the momentum for us,” Servance said. “You have to be able to take advantage of those opportunities and we weren’t able to do that.”

Things would go downhill for Odessa High early in the second half as Montwood’s Aiden Montes intercepted a pass on the second play of the half and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown.

Ramos added two more touchdown runs, of 51 and 2 yards, and finished with 194 yards rushing on just 12 carries.

The Rams defense got on the scoreboard for a second time when Miranda was sacked in the end zone for a safety.

Odessa High got on the board late with a touchdown pass from backup quarterback Diego Cervantes to Terrance Samuel in the final minute of the game.

 “We’ve all got to get better,” Servance said. “Coaches, kids, everyone, we have to get better. We have one more nondistrict game and we have to go back to the drawing board.”
