Pueblo West defeats Pueblo County in 2023 Pigskin Classic

The 23rd annual Pigskin Classic took place Friday evening at the ThunderBowl at CSU Pueblo as the Pueblo West Cyclones hosted the Pueblo County Hornets.

The matchup in this one was heavily one-sided as the Cyclones bested the Hornets 35-7 to keep the Pigskin trophy for yet another year.

Gavin Lockett was the star in this one, totaling four touchdowns, three on the ground and one in the air. Garrett O’Brien had a big game receiving and returning as well for the Cyclones. The Hornets were stifled on offense all night long and couldn’t find a consistent run or pass game against the Cyclones' defense.

Cyclones with a flurry of offense

Lockett got the game going with some exciting plays right off the bat. He had a 60-yard touchdown run on the second play of the game and would not stop there.

Shortly after scoring, the Cyclones would get the ball back and Lockett would find O’Brien for a 65-yard reception to set the home team up with great field position. A few plays later Lockett would run it in for a touchdown to go up 14-0 early in the first quarter.

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Later in the first, O’Brien would have a big punt return of almost 40 yards to flip the field in the Cyclones' favor, and early in the second quarter, running back Rodolfo Gonzales would run it in from a few yards out to make it 21-0.

Lockett later threw a beautiful touch pass to the corner of the end zone to wide receiver Brock Keck to put the Cyclones up 28-0.

Late in the second quarter, Lockett would once again score a rushing touchdown on a series that was set up by the Cyclones defense as they intercepted Hornets quarterback Cohen Glenn and took the ball down inside the 20-yard line. The Cyclones would go into halftime up 35-0.

After a quiet third quarter from both teams — which saw a change of position from each squad several times — the Hornets were finally able to get on the board midway through the fourth quarter as Glenn found wide receiver Teagen Dillon across the middle of the field to make it 35-7.

However, the Cyclones' defense would not allow another score and ended the game with a final score of 35-7.

The Cyclones' head coach Clint Buderus was pleased with his team's efforts in this game.

“It feels good, I don’t think we played in the second half like we wanted to, I'm proud of the way we played in the first half,” Buderus said. “We are going to watch film and see what we can do to get better.”

The defense was a major factor in this game as they held County to only seven points the whole game, all while stopping their major attack which was rushing the football.

“We had to start fast, you can’t let them get confidence and get rolling,” Buderus said. “It’s all about starting fast, and I was proud of the way our defense played. They were flying around and we wanted to make them throw the football because that's not the MO. We kind of had to do that, and we got some special players on defense overall.”

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Lockett was big for the Cyclones in this one as he has been all year, and Buderus is happy to see the growth of his junior quarterback.

“He (Lockett) is huge for us,” Buderus said. “We took our lumps with him last year. We knew he was going to be good and he had good moments last year but could never put a whole game together. But he's grown up and he’s tough. He is a good player.”

Buderus knows the importance of a victory like this and is happy that his team was able to come out and get the victory.

“It’s a huge win, it’s a big rivalry game. We don’t get to play in front of a crowd like that every week,” Buderus said. “It's fun for the kids and it is always fun to win the Pigskin game.”

The Cyclones (3-0) will face off against Fountain Ft.-Carson next week at the ThunderBowl at 7 p.m. on Friday. The Hornets (1-1) will host Harrison at 7 p.m. on Friday as well at Hornet Stadium.

Lockett is hoping to go perfect

Gavin Lockett is a stud on the football field as well as a top track athlete for Pueblo West. This was his second Pigskin Classic as the starting quarterback and third overall as a Cyclone. He is trying to be one of the few players in program history to have gone all four years at Pueblo West being the Pigskin champion.

“Hopefully, I only have one more,” Lockett said. “Thankfully I played as a freshman, and now I'm 3-0 so I'm hoping next year we get another win and go 4-0.”

Lockett was happy with his performance in this year's Classic as he put up a total of four touchdowns, including three on the ground.

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“I feel great, I'm really proud of our team, we came out fast and scored on the second play,” Lockett said. “We have a special group this year, I love the energy we play with and the passion as well.”

As a sophomore last year, Lockett led the team to the playoffs only to be bounced out after two games. This offseason he put in a lot of work to be a better quarterback to get over the hump and help carry his team further into the playoffs.

“I feel a lot more comfortable, a lot of credit to my dad, we spent a lot of time sweating and hours training and grinding and just trying to get better,” Lockett said. “I’ve spent a lot of time with coach Buderus going over film and learning and I feel a lot more comfortable back there. A lot of credit to my offensive line too, they make it really easy to be comfortable because I have a lot of time back there.”

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

This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo West handily defeats Pueblo County in Pigskin Classic