Ortiz makes it happen for St. Pius
Sartans top Artesia, win first state title since 1999
In three years, St. Pius went from a three-win season to New Mexico’s top Class 5A football team.
Led by star quarterback Drew Ortiz, the Sartans hoisted the blue trophy for the first time in 17 years after knocking off two-time defending state champion Artesia, 34-24, at Nusenda Community Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
“All of us who were on the team (three years ago) wanted to change things,” said St. Pius senior defensive end Brenden Alcala. He participated in two sacks of Artesia’s Taylor Null and also knocked down three passes.
“We wanted to show people who we were, and that we were a good team.”
It helps to turn things around when
Ortiz is your field general. He threw for three scores and ran for two more while participating in all but 15 of the Sartans’ 336 total yards.
“He’s not that bad of a player,” said St. Pius head coach San Juan Mendoza, tongue firmly in cheek.
After the game, Mendoza announced he is retiring as Sartans coach. (See story on C7.)
Ortiz put the second-seeded Sartans (12-1) on top in the first quarter, fooling Artesia with an “I-gotcha” pump fake that enabled receiver Mel DeHerrera to spring free on a 46-yard TD pass.
After the Bulldogs’ offense found its rhythm in the second half, Ortiz kept his team in front with one video-game play after another.
“We prepared for that, but you can’t simulate that in practice,” said Artesia first-year head coach Rex Henderson. “And it’s hard to simulate the desire of
a kid like Ortiz. It’s not that we didn’t have guys there. He was breaking tackles our kids didn’t really miss. He has tremendous willpower and wants to make it happen.”
Down 13-0, No. 1 seed Artesia took advantage of the Sartans’ prevent defense, moving into field goal range in the final 34 seconds of the first half.
A pair of Null-to-Cody Fuentes completions — the latter hook-up a 48-yarder — set up Tanner Harris’ 29-yard field goal on the half’s final play to make it a 10-point game.
“We didn’t play that well offensively in the first half,” Mendoza said. “Part of that was Artesia’s defense, but to hold that team to three points in the first half was unbelievable.”
A stingy first-half defense proved critical; the Sartans had to match Artesia score for score in the second half.
Null found Chaney Hardt on a pair of 4-yard TD tosses and added 9-yard scoring toss to Tyler Greenwood with 1:38 left in the fourth, each touchdown an answer to a St. Pius TD.
Null finished 33-of-47 for 344 passing yards.
“We didn’t do our part on offense in the first half,” Henderson said. “We got our offense on track in the second half, but it was too late.”
It was that first-half defensive performance by the Sartans — combined with Ortiz’s heroics —that led Mendoza to point out that the win was much more than his quarterback’s personal highlight show.
“One player will get a lot of the headlines, but we’re a complete team from the linemen to the receivers and backs,” Mendoza said. “We play for each other, and it was a tight brotherhood this year.”
Still, it is hard to downplay Ortiz’s spectacular play-making skills. He scored twice in the fourth quarter on plays that should have gone nowhere.
On the first, a 24-yard TD scramble, he was nearly tripped up by his own lineman 2 yards behind the line of scrimmage. But he found a crease and dragged two defenders the final 5 yards over the goal line.
On the second score, Ortiz used a 360-degree spin move to reverse direction. Once again, he made multiple defenders miss along the way en route to the 33-yard score that opened a 34-24 lead with 2:57 left.
“This is the best feeling I’ve had in my life,” Ortiz said, who finished his final season with a combined 60 touchdowns (38 passing; 22 rushing). “It’s every kid’s dream to win a state championship.”