Tigers respond to shocking wake-up call
Braves’ touchdown on opening kickoff doesn’t shake Taos’ nerves
For 13 seconds, the impossible seemed plausible. Then the Taos Tigers showed up Thursday night. In a battle of undefeated teams, the one least likely to be in that position did the least likely thing. The Santa Fe Indian School Braves returned the opening kickoff 82 yards for a touchdown to hold a 7-0 lead just 13 seconds into both team’s District 2-4A opener against the third-ranked Tigers at SFIS Athletic Complex.
Taos head coach Art Abreu Jr. had a quick conversation with his first-string offense, and his message was heeded. The Tigers scored 62 unanswered points, collected 535 yards of total offense and rolled to a 62-7 win. But for a brief moment, the Braves sprinkled a little bit more pixie dust on a magical start to the season — even if it was for one play.
When Jasper Hokah grabbed the Tigers’ squib kick on the game’s opening play, stutter stepped to the left sideline and outran the Taos kickreturn coverage for the touchdown, the east side of the complex, which housed everybody in maroon-and-gold, exploded with hope.
The extra-point kick made it 7-0, SFIS, and there was hope.
Leave it to Abreu to crush it. He saw a lackadaisical team allow the Braves to score, and he was determined to bark his team into shape. And fast. “Our squib kick is money for us, and then we take the first play off,” Abreu said. “We were harping on it all week: They’re going to be hungry. They’re four-and-oh, too, and they want to be five-and-oh just as bad as we do.”
After the Braves’ message, the Tigers (5-0 overall) had a reply.
And what better retort than to use the Tigers’ best asset — their offensive line. A unit that averages at least 240 pounds pounded away at the SFIS defense, and the early recipient of that was junior running back Jonathan Garcia.
On Taos’ second play from scrimmage, Garcia went over the left side, slipped through a couple of futile Braves’ arm tackles and sped past the secondary for a 66-yard touchdown run to tie the score at 7-all with just 10:56 left in the opening quarter.
On the Tigers’ next offensive play, Garcia went over the right side of the offensive line, slipped through another pair of SFIS arm tackles and burst free