GRANTS - Following the Grants Pirates' 26-7 win over Gallup on Sept. 4, Coach Dale Hooper addressed his players in the locker room, as he will do following every game this season. And as he privately may have breathed a sigh of happiness and relief from earning his first win as Grants head coach, the message to his players was clear: This one's for you guys.

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“Our kids were pretty fired up to play football and I'm sure proud of them,” Hooper said. “I told them it was a big win for our program, and I don't think it's as big deal to me as it is to them. I said, 'Celebrate tonight, but Monday we start preparing for our next opponent.”

That opponent happens to be Laguna-Acoma, the Hawks a 44-6 loser to Lordsburg, also on Friday night, but lest Pirate fans get ahead of themselves, there's still the Gallup game to consider.

Considering some of the gaudy numbers that can be dug up over the Gallup/Grants football rivalry, and the Pirates' performance at home in recent years, then basking in Grants' win becomes a necessity.

The Pirates (1-1 overall this season) last beat the Bengals (0-2 overall) in 2005, a 21-13 home win. Since then, Gallup has outscored Grants 131-20 in three games, and needless to say, none were Pirate victories. Add to that the fact that Grants last won a home game in 2006, when they beat Laguna-Acoma 41-6 on Sept. 22, and the Gallup win becomes a momentous occasion for the whole community.

“Our theme this week was tradition,” Hooper said. “We talked about how this was a long-running state rivalry (Hooper said he understands it's the state's longest) and we tried to bring different people to talk to them, people that have played at Grants throughout the years. It was nice, and the community support has been outstanding and that helps a lot.”

Also resurfacing are slogans of past Pirate teams - “the Angry Jack attack is back,” Hooper said - and probably for good reason. In its first two games, the first half of the Socorro game notwithstanding, Pirates have looked like a team that does a good job of controlling the tempo of its football games.

After senior Gallup quarterback Steven Summy went out with an injury, Grants allowed a 41-yard touchdown pass to Adam Sowers, from backup quarterback Johnny Montano. After that, Gallup never crossed the end zone line, as the Pirate defense managed to bend, but not break.

Jeremy Chavez and true freshman Cole Brown had 11 tackles apiece to lead the Pirates, while Chavez, Beau Chavez and Daniel Sedillos - another true freshman - combined for four sacks. Add to that interceptions by Derreck Hassell and Brown, and fumble recoveries by Hassell, Sedillos and Eddie Gonzales and you have a pretty complete defensive performance, even as Gonzales didn't quite hit paydirt with the fumble he recovered.

“We told (Gonzales) we knew he didn't want to take glory away from offense,” Hooper said. “So we'll let them have that.”

Senior back Brandon Rael ended up assisting Gonzales with a short touchdown run, one of his three of the night, and senior quarterback Charles Miller added another. The two backs combined for 264 yards on the ground (135 for Rael and 129 for Miller) while Miller added an efficient 7 for 10 passing performance.

“I think our offense moved the ball really well,” Hooper said. “We didn't throw as much as we will, it's the least I've ever thrown actually, but we're running the ball really well, and I knew going in that it would be our strategy.”

As for what Hooper's strategy will be against L-A this week, he says that the Pirates will continue to work on fundamentals. Grants continues to play relatively mistake-free football (one fumble, due to a pickup and delivery issue between Miller and Rael was Grants' only blemish against Gallup) and Hooper said that if players can focus on preparing like they always have, things could go Grants' way.

“They're our next opponent and we'll prepare for them like we do anyone else,” Hooper said of the Hawks. “I've coached there and those are tough kids that play good football. You never know what could happen; for us right now, it's one game at a time and this week, it's Laguna.”

The Sept. 11 matchup is being billed as the last in the Cibola Bowl series. L-A has won the last two matchups, one at Hawks Stadium in 2007 and another last year in Grants.

See Friday's Beacon for a full preview of this game.