Volcano Vista sails into bye week with four-game winning streak

One touchdown — the first touchdown — allowed the Volcano Vista Hawks to turn a pivotal corner on Saturday afternoon.

The Hawks had precious little going on in the first half against stingy Eldorado. Nothing, literally, from a scoreboard standpoint.

“We were lucky to be down 2 (at half),” Volcano Vista coach Chad Wallin said.

An Eagles safety was the only scoring before halftime, but the Hawks hit on a long touchdown pass in the early going of the third quarter, and that sparked No. 4 Volcano Vista the rest of the way in what proved to be a 28-8 nondistrict victory over Eldorado at extremely windy Wilson Stadium.

A 45-yard pitch-and-catch TD from quarterback Ilijah Hansen to Devin Dunkin gave the Hawks a lead they wouldn’t relinquish. It was a fairly straightforward deep-out pattern, which Dunkin then turned upfield along the near sideline for a touchdown.

“We needed to switch momentum,” Wallin said. “We had to find something.”

That score seemed to flip a switch with the Hawks (4-1).

“Correct,” Hansen said. “That was definitely a mood change. We needed to get that score. And things changed from there.”

Eldorado (2-2) fumbled the ball away deep in its own end moments later, and the Hawks quickly capitalized, albeit with a bit of a gamble as Volcano Vista reached the Eldorado 3, but faced a fourth-and-goal.

Wallin opted to roll the dice, leading 7-2, and it paid off when running back Mason Gurule went out wide and just about walked into the end zone for a 14-2 edge.

Hansen added a 24-yard touchdown pass midway through the fourth quarter that put the game away, for a 21-2 lead. The Eagles did get a score with 4:19 to go, but Volcano Vista’s lead was not in jeopardy. Hansen added an insurance QB keeper from the 1 in the last minute for the final margin.

“Our intensity, our effort,” Hansen said, asked what changed at halftime. “Our coach talked a lot about us getting effort and just pushing the ball down their throat.”

Volcano Vista enters its bye week. The Hawks will emerge in Week 7 for a District 1-6A opener at Piedra Vista. Eldorado (2-2) meets Santa Fe next week.

The Eagles’ 2-0 lead was mostly due to special teams, with a nice punt pinning the Hawks at their 2 in the second quarter. Moments later, a Volcano Vista running back was downed in the end zone.

At Milne Stadium on Saturday afternoon, Valley finally won its first game of 2024, 13-6 over Miyamura in a District 1-5A matchup.

All the points in the game were scored in the first half. Gabe Gonzales caught a touchdown and Jose Jaramillo ran the other one in for the Vikings.

Volcano Vista defeats Eldorado: Photos