MONTE VISTA – It was a good, old-fashioned defensive struggle when the Monte Vista High School football team hosted Alamosa Friday at Harvey Sullivan Field in the season opener for both teams.

Both programs’ offense had numerous opportunities to score only to be denied most of the time. The final result was a 6-3 win for the Mean Moose.

“It’s early in the season and it takes a while for the offense to get going,” said Alamosa coach Drew Sandlin. “I’m proud of what they did, but we have some things to fix. We played against a really good defense today.”

“I feel like it was a typical first game for both teams,” said Monte Vista coach Manny Wasinger. “It was a one-score game going into the last possession. We lost our composure some times in the second half and that hurt us from a field position standpoint and from a personnel standpoint. We have to learn from that and get better. We just told our kids that most teams will make their most improvement between week 1 and week 2. Alamosa will and they’ll be much better next week, and we will be as well.”

The Pirates had the ball first and advanced to the Alamosa 30 before turning the ball over on downs.

The Mean Moose also had a potential scoring drive on their first possession, driving to the Monte Vista 37 before they too turned the ball over on downs.

The Pirates recovered a fumble midway through the second quarter, but went three and out.

Monte Vista had the ball last in the first half, but did not advance past midfield before the half ended with a 0-0 tie.

Alamosa had the ball first in the second half and this time the Mean Moose reached the end zone. Tony Griego scored on a 1-yard quarterback keeper, however, the two-point attempt was unsuccessful and Alamosa led 6-0 with 7:48 left in the third quarter.

The Mean Moose had another opportunity to score after Keenon Woodward recovered a fumble at the Pirates’ 7. But this time the Monte Vista defense held and forced Alamosa to turn the ball over on downs at the 5-yard line.

Monte Vista finally got on the scoreboard the next time it had the ball. The Pirates drove to the Alamosa 14 before the drive stalled and they settled for a 31-yard field goal by Jeremiah McComas.

Neither team were able to mount another scoring drive and the game ended with the Alamosa victory.Alamosa accumulated 216 yards of total offense. Griego led the way as he completed 12 of 20 passes for 138 yards and he also led the team in rushing with 63 yards on 17 carries.

Brennan Maez was Griego’s top receiver with five catches for 76 yards. Victor Zepeda had two catches for 34 yards, and Nelson Arambula had two for 11 yards.

Monte Vista had 149 total yards with 127 coming on the ground. Judah Howe was the Pirates’ top ground-gainer with 89 yards on 15 carries.

Manny Jiron completed four of 11 passes for 22 yards. He had four receivers with a reception apiece.

Alamosa (1-0) will travel to Colorado Springs this coming Friday to face Banning Lewis Academy. Kickoff is at 7 p.m.

“They should be tough,” Sandlin said. “They had a down year last year, but we saw them at some camps this summer. It should be a tough Friday night.”

Monte Vista (0-1) will be at home again this Friday as it will host Rye. Game time is at 6 p.m.

“Rye is a good football team,” Wasinger said. “They won big last week 28-3 over a Class 2A team in Manitou Springs. They should be 2-0 coming into us next week. So we’re going to have to have a good week and get better.”

Alamosa 6, Monte Vista 3

Alamosa 0 0 6 0 – 6

Monte Vista 0 0 0 3 – 3

Third quarter

A – Griego 1 run (run failed), 7:48

Fourth quarter

MV – McComas 31 FG, 10:42