Robertson overcomes 14-point deficit over Horsemen
The Las Vegas Robertson Cardinals illustrated again Saturday that three straight state championship game appearances haven’t been the product of accident, mistake or coincidence.
Instead, it has taken a ton of grit and a lot of pride.
Trailing by 14 points with four minutes remaining, fifth-seeded Robertson came alive just in the nick of time, scoring a pair of touchdowns and forcing a critical turnover to stun No. 4 St. Michael’s, 28-27, in a Class 3A quarterfinal showdown between the arch-rivals at Christian Brothers Athletic Complex.
The Cardinals advance to face No. 1 Albuquerque Hope Christian next weekend in Albuquerque, while the Horsemen finished 6-5 overall but lost as the favorite in the quarterfinal for the second straight November.
“We hung in there,” Robertson head coach Leroy Gonzalez said. “We knew if we got some shots, we could do something. They gave us an opportunity and we executed. Our guys are resilient. They want to go back to the finals, and that came out in the last few minutes. It fell our way.”
When Horsemen junior tight end Jaxon Hay caught a 4-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Dominic Morgan (Three TD passes and one rushing touchdown) with 4:03 left to give St. Michael’s a seemingly comfortable 27-13 lead, nobody would have been blamed for looking ahead to the semifinals.
But if anybody thought the deficit was insurmountable with so little time remaining, the Robertson offense didn’t get the memo.
In a flash, Cardinals freshman wide
receiver Matthew Gonzales, arguably the biggest hero of Robertson’s courageous comeback, was left unguarded in the middle of the field and he raced all the way into the red zone, setting the stage for senior quarterback Brandon Lucero’s 11-yard TD throw to Antonio Padilla, narrowing the gap to 27-20.
Moments later, it was the Robertson defense’s turn to make a big play as it recovered a St. Michael’s fumble near midfield.
Again Gonzales came through under pressure, catching a 51-yard pass from Lucero and racing all the way to the 1-yard line. Lucero scored on a quarterback sneak with 1:23 showing on the clock.
“Coach made a great call because it was open the whole game,” Gonzales said of his second long reception. “I knew I could get their guy one-on-one, and coach believed in me. When I saw the ball coming my way, I knew I was going to catch it.”
Down 27-26, Gonzalez faced a monumental and seasondefining decision. Rather than kicking the point-after attempt and trying to win in overtime, he decided to go for the win with the 2-point conversion.
Gonzales caught a pass from Lucero at the goal line, and he managed to fight off a Horsemen defender to break the plane, giving Robertson the upset win.
“It’s Cardinal [ride,” Gonzalez said. “Wearing that red, black and white uniform means something. It showed up today. We didn’t want to lose.”
Saturday’s loss, which came three weeks after the Horsemen drubbed Robertson 39-7 in District 2-3A play, left St. Michael’s head coach Joey Fernandez and his bewildered players shaking their heads in frustration. A year ago, they entered the Class 4A playoffs as the No. 1 seed, but lost to Hatch Valley, 26-24, on its home field.
“Our guys were playing not to lose [in the last few minutes] and they were playing to win,” Fernandez said. “It wasn’t the same team from the first half. The fumble didn’t lose the game. It was a lot of different plays. We didn’t do a good job of tackling. It hurts because we didn’t seem to have the motivation to get the job done in the fourth quarter when we were ahead.
“Give credit to Robertson. They made the plays in the fourth quarter.”
St. Michaels led at halftime, 21-7, and never trailed until Robertson’s decisive two-point conversion.