In the world of sports, one message stands amongst the most helpful: You can only control what you do next.
Last week’s District 4-AAAAA-opening loss to Roswell High happened. The regrets have been felt, the film watched, and the reasons explored. As of Monday, the game was shelved.
“I think one of the good things we do here is that our message is always pretty much the same, whether we win or lose: Let’s just go get better,” head coach Jeremy Maupin said Wednesday. “We didn’t play our best football last week, and we want to remedy that for the rest of the season.
“So we’ll go into this week and we’ll try to right the ship. The big thing is to just push forward and fix as we go. It’s still the regular season, and we’ve still got opportunities to go play good football before the playoffs.”
That mission began this week with the Bulldogs’ response to Friday. As is their general mindset, it was pragmatic.
“Just talking to the guys, they’re all like ‘we know we didn’t give them our best game, we’re going to play them again later on at the Bowl, so now let’s go show Goddard who we are,'” Maupin said. “It’s been a good response.
“I thought we’ve had really good practices so far this week. I thought our guys have been focused, they’ve been energetic, they’ve been fast. It’s what we wanted to see from them.”
The ‘Dogs know there’s no time for dwelling or taking their foot off the gas against Goddard. The third-ranked team in Class 5A stands at 6-2 on the season, 1-0 in district following last week’s 27-13 win over Mayfield at the Field of Dreams.
The Rockets’ two losses this season have come at the hands of Carlsbad — 27-19 on Aug. 25 — and Piedra Vista — 21-7 Sept. 15. The Bulldogs topped the Cavemen 55-7 in their season opener Aug. 18 and also share a trio of wins with Goddard over Belen (51-0 for Artesia, 57-7 for Carlsbad), Santa Teresa (53-0 and 49-0) and Deming (54-26 and 35-12). The Rockets also added regular-season victories over Miyamura (49-0) and Gadsden (35-7).
In true Wool Bowl fashion — a field that was clearly built on an ancient burial ground –the boys in orange experienced some issues in the first half of last year’s meeting with Goddard. Down 20-19 at the break, they were at another crossroads: give in to frustration or take back the reins.
They opted for the latter, holding the Rockets scoreless through the final 24 minutes of football en route to a 55-20 win.
“Their quarterback is back this year,” Maupin said. “In their scrimmage, they threw the ball a ton, and he throws the ball a little better than they’ve probably had in the past. So they have that ability this year. They’ve also got their running back, Jon Silva. They’ve kind of moved him to win this year, but we expect he’ll play some at running back, and he’s a really good football player.
“Defensively, they’ve got a kid [Josiah Castillo] who plays both ways. He started last year as a freshman, so he’s only a sophomore, and he’s a big, tall, fast kid. He ran track and is kind of their go-to receiver who also plays at corner.”
Returning senior QB Dominic Ramirez was eight of 19 for 79 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions in 2022 against Artesia, while Silva racked up 161 rushing yards and one touchdown on 27 carries.
“They’re typical Goddard,” said Maupin. “The same kinds of coverages, same kind of running plays, same offense, defense and special teams that they’ve tended to have in the past. They just want to be more physical than you and slow the game down, run the ball down your throat, and mix it up a little bit.”
The Bulldogs know they have a little something to prove this week after dropping into the No. 2 spot in the Class 5A rankings. But that doesn’t mean overcompensating or losing their cool. It will come from getting back to the basics and playing football the way they know they can.
“We just have to be ready to play another good football team and show that we’re a good football team, too,” said Maupin.
