Freshman running back rallies Jags
Senior receiver and stout defense also keys to victory
It’s not often an English-American poet finds his work rattling around as a source of inspiration in a football locker room, but that was exactly the case last week for the late W.H. Auden.
He once penned a poem about time’s influence on how we are perceived. Capital football coach Bill Moon used it to channel his team’s focus heading into Saturday’s District 2-5A showdown with Albuquerque Del Norte at sun-soaked Milne Stadium.
“Auden asked what’s time always tell everyone?” Moon said. “It says, ‘I told you so.’ In 49 minutes, it will say I told you that you didn’t prepare well enough, or it will tell you that you did.”
Well take a seat, Mr. Auden. Moon’s team prepared well enough.
The Jaguars rallied for an 18-13 win on the strength of a reliable freshman running back, a senior receiver with big play ability and a seasoned defensive back whose intuitive nature led him to make a game-saving interception late in the fourth quarter.
Capital (3-4, 1-0) moved into sole possession of first place in the 2-5A standings, half a game in front of both Del Norte and Los Alamos with three weeks left in the regular season. “Huge win for us because beating [Del Norte] puts us in charge,” said senior Estevan Segura, the defensive hero who snared a looping pass from Knights quarterback Christian Mejia in the back of the end zone with 4:39 left in the fourth quarter.
That pick stalled a Del Norte drive that penetrated Capital’s red zone just moments after the Jaguars took the lead on a 63-yard touchdown pass from Francisco Leos to receiver Lucas McNatt with 7:58 to go.
That play ended a brutal stalemate that ratcheted up the stress in the second half. With Del Norte nursing a 13-12 lead at halftime, the teams combined for more punts (seven) than first downs (two) four minutes into the fourth quarter.
As the game dragged on, it became apparent that the tension was about to snap under the weight of a huge play from one of the teams. It came when Leos took a
shotgun snap and immediately threaded a quick slant to his left in McNatt’s direction. Mejia just missed breaking it up with an outstretched left hand, and one of his teammates missed bringing McNatt down as the ball arrived.
After that, it was all smooth sailing as McNatt ran the final 55 yards untouched to put the Jaguars in front for good.
“We know we have game breakers and we’ve got more young game breakers coming now than ever before,” Moon said. “That was a play we knew might work and, why not?”
Behind it all was a steady offensive line that paved the way for freshman running back Luke Padilla to rush for over 150 yards and a touchdown. As he started to do an interview afterward, Moon interrupted him by saying the only two things a freshman should talk about in an interview are “nothing” and “even less.”
“Oh, and be sure to thank your offensive line,” Moon said.
“My offensive line played great,” Padilla said without hesitation.
The only sustained drive out of Del Norte in the second half came immediately after McNatt’s touchdown. The Knights (2-6, 1-1) took over at their own 43 and drove as deep as Capital’s 18 with five minutes remaining. Mejia appeared to have the matchup he wanted on the right side, but Segura recognized the alignment and made a last second adjustment. “I noticed they had been going to that one guy all day out of that [formation],” Segura said. “I called in to change it and shifted over to that side. I knew they were coming that way.”
Mejia threw into double coverage and Segura met the ball at its highest point, falling backward to the turf for the biggest turnovers of the day.
Del Norte had been the proverbial bully of 2-5A since joining the district in 2014. The Knights had run the table twice, winning the district’s lone bid to the state playoffs in 2014 and again last year.
As everyone in the Capital locker room knew, the road to the 2-5A title went through Del Norte. “It feels so good to beat those guys because, yeah, that’s the team we had to take out,” Segura said.
When Mejia’s fourth-down pass in the closing seconds was off the mark to end the Knights’ final drive near midfield, Moon couldn’t help but think of his poet’s words.
“All we needed were 48 minutes, and the one minute after it was over gave us the answer,” he said. “We were prepared.”
“Huge win for us because beating [Del Norte] puts us in charge.” Senior Estevan Segura