Santa Fe High got hammered at homecoming by tiny Class 2A Escalante in a game that started three hours late.
Small-school Lobos stuck in traffic for 3 hours; Santa Fe High’s losing streak grows
In the wake of Friday night’s marathon traffic jam that started with a tragic multicar pileup on U.S. 84/285 and ended with thousands of commuters getting stuck at a standstill for hours, Escalante football coach Dusty Giles was able to find a little humor.
“We just sat there. Waited. It was hot, miserable,” he said. “Just the worst trip I’ve ever had in my life.”
Maybe you had to be there because he delivered that line with a smile, prefacing it with a recap of a memorable night punctuated with his team’s 39-6 victory over Santa Fe High at Ivan Head Stadium. The game was scheduled for a 7 p.m. kickoff and the Lobos began their trek to the City Different by 3 o’clock.
They’d planned on arriving around 5 to stretch, tape creaky ankles and don their uniforms. That was put on hold when the accident halted their bus at the north end of Pojoaque.
Giles said they moved about 100 feet in the first hour. The next hour was even worse.
“Look at that thing,” he said, glancing over his left shoulder toward the school’s red and white bus. “There’s no DVD player in that thing. It’s not like we could watch movies, and probably half my guys don’t even have phones. I was going crazy in there.”
Giles’s phone died during the wait, cutting him off from the rest of the world.
“I think someone had cards or something, so that wasn’t so bad,” said Lobos quarterback Cody Russom. “But, yeah, it wasn’t great. I guess it kind of smelled bad in there, too.”
Given half an hour to get off the bus and onto the field in uniform, Escalante had less than 10 minutes to stretch before the 10 p.m. kickoff.
As the teams prepared, a quick text to the New Mexico Activities Association confirmed there is no rule about curfews, that games can basically start at any time of day so long as both teams and officials agree to it.
The only hiccup came in the timing itself. At least one stadium neighbor emailed a Santa Fe High administrator to complain about the stadium lights staying on so late, and a bus full of grade school kids there to celebrate Santa Fe High’s homecoming took dozens of energized fans home long before Escalante even arrived.
Even the Santa Fe High marching band and cheerleading squad left early.
“We waited so long to get in here and play on this field, and we barely had time to look around before the game started,” said Escalante running back Anthony Ulibarri. “I mean, what a great place to play, but it’s not like we had a chance to see it, you know?”
Russom broke the ice almost immediately. After the Lobos returned the opening kick 31 yards to midfield, the starting QB called his own number and rumbled 48 yards for a touchdown just 58 seconds into the game.
It was a shocking start to a bizarre game that already had plenty of storylines tied to it. On one side there was Santa Fe High and its 31-game losing streak, a team that had come so-so-close several times to snapping the skid; just last year they carried a lead in the fourth quarter four times.
A new coaching staff had created a new personality for the program, but the Demons dropped out of Class 6A and committed to at least one season as an independent. No district schedule, no shot at making the state playoffs. It also meant a huge void at the tail end of the season as the school had to replace its District 2-6A opponents with anyone willing to play.
A mass email was sent out across the state, and Escalante just happened to be available. A school with just 105 students, it seemed like the perfect opponent to schedule for homecoming and pick up a win.
“We heard that a lot,” Ulibarri said. “We heard how they wanted to play us just because we’re a small school. No way.”
The Lobos held their lead until Santa Fe High tied it on a 44-yard pass from Levi Lopez to Jonah Baca late in the first quarter. It came just moments after the Demons flipped field position after forcing a punt from inside Escalante’s 10-yard line.
But, as has been the case so many times during Santa Fe High’s run, things fell apart one miscue at a time. The Lobos again returned the kickoff to midfield and punched it in for what proved to be the game-winning score just five plays later when Russom scored on a 3-yard sneak to make it 12-6.
The Demons responded with a fumble, a turnover on downs a failed fake punt and another failed try on fourth down as Escalante pushed the lead to 26-6 at halftime.
Despite outgaining the Lobos in the first half 232-179, Santa Fe High managed just 29 yards in offense the rest of the way.
“So many mistakes and it’s the same things we’re seeing on film every single week,” Martinez said, quickly taking the blame himself for not getting things going in the right direction sooner. “We have to do a better job as coaches to fix this. That’s all there is.”
As Escalante kept scoring and the game got out of hand, the once-joyful homecoming mood had clearly shifted into a celebration on Escalante’s side. Until this game, a team from the state’s smallest 11-man classification — in New Mexico’s case, Class 2A — had not beaten a team from 6A. “It does mean something, yes,” Russom said. “We knew we were making history by winning this game, but to know we are the only team in New Mexico to ever do this — I can’t even describe it.”
Martinez wiped clean the notion that Escalante is a small-town club with undersized players.
“They all come off the bus and they’re all about this size,” he said, holding his flattened palm about 5-feet, 6-inches ofzf the ground. “But they’re solid. Their arms, their legs. These guys might look small but they’re not small. They’re built different. They’re what I call farm strong. They all work on those ranches and farms up there and they’re just put together different than other teams.” In other words, tough. “What can I say,” Giles said as he walked back to his team bus well after the game ended past midnight. “My guys like to hit and they can take a hit. Maybe we proved something here tonight. Maybe.”