East Eagles dominate Fort Morgan to open the 2024-25 football season

Friday night lights have returned to Pueblo.

The first full week of prep sports is back in action and with it comes the first football game of the season at home on the new turf at Dutch Clark Stadium.

Friday night saw the Pueblo East Eagles host the Fort Morgan Mustangs in an early season matchup. The Eagles, led by quarterback Dolphka Lewis, managed to easily handle the Mustangs 35-0 to earn the victory on opening night.

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Eagles cruise past Mustangs.

The game started slowly at first with both teams feeling out the game early on. Midway through the first quarter, Lewis got the offense going with a touchdown run after completing a big pass to wide receiver Chaz Leyba. The Eagles would go for two and go up 8-0 early on.

In the second quarter, the Eagles continued their scoring run with another touchdown run by Lewis to go up 14-0. Then later in the second, Lewis tossed a touchdown pass to wide receiver Izaiah Trujillo to put the Eagles up 21-0. They would cap off the half with another touchdown pass from Lewis this time to MJ Delgado to make it 28-0 score at halftime.

The third and fourth quarters were pretty much a formality at this point, with the Eagles' defense firmly in control of the game, the Mustangs' offense was stifled on every drive and were not able to come away with much of anything. After an interception in the third quarter, the Eagles cruised the rest of the way and ended the game 35-0.

Head coach Tony Valdez was pleased with his team’s performance in the home opener.

“I got to give a lot of credit to my coaching staff, I’m very blessed with some of the best assistant coaches in the state, so I have to give them a lot of credit, along with my senior class,” Valdez said. “We tell our team that great teams are player driven and this senior class has taken it and ran with it. I have to do very little work with the day-to-day stuff because they are running the show. So, it's fun to see these guys have success with their friends.”

Valdez also spoke about Lewis’ performance in this game.

“Dolphka Lewis is a very special young man, he is a hell of a quarterback, he throws a great football, he is strong in the weight room, he runs like the wind,” Valdez said. “But the best thing about Lewis is he is so coachable and so selfless. We are going to go as he goes.”

Lewis also spoke after the game about how it was to get this win not only as the first game of the season but also the first game on the new turf at Dutch Clark Stadium.

“I felt pretty good, the team has been practicing since spring to try and pick up from where we were last season,” Lewis said. “Our bond this season is way better than we ever had. It felt pretty good to get the first win here. I grew up coming here so it was great to get the win with my team and bond with the players.”

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Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: East Eagles dominate Fort Morgan to open the 2024-25 football season