The Taos seniors kept a promise made to their coach and are now in the title game.
Tigers clobber Portales, reach championship
Coach Art Abreu Jr. was a promise keeper on Saturday.
When Abreu took over in 2015, made a deal with his incoming freshmen class — if the group stuck together, it would make the state championship game.
On Saturday, the seniors helped their coach keep his word with a 35-14 win over Portales in the Class 4A semifinal at Greyhound Stadium in Portales. With the win, the third-seeded Tigers (11-1) will play host to the 5A championship at 1 p.m. Dec. 1 against No. 5 Bloomfield, a surprise 15-6 winner over top seed Albuquerque St. Pius X.
It is the first state championship appearance for the Tigers.
While Abreu said he wouldn’t bask in the glow of what the program accomplished until the day after the championship game, he took a moment to marvel at how his seniors made him look prescient.
“All you had to do was get off your butt and work with these guys —in the weight room, in the summer, in the classroom,” Abreu said. “This class of seniors, they have excelled beyond my expectations. It just blows my mind.”
The seniors led the way in the second half — Aiden Leblanc in particular. He stopped the Rams (8-4) on a fourth downand-2 play at the Taos 15-yard line. Leblanc sniffed out a option keeper by quarterback Julian Urioste for a 3-yard loss. The Tigers proceeded to drive down the field, setting up Justin Good to find a wide-open Leblanc in the right corner of the end zone for a 28-14 lead just 5 seconds into the fourth quarter.
After stopping Portales on its ensuing drive, Taos played vintage Abreu-style football, eating up more than nine minutes off the clock before adding an insurance touchdown.
The big play on the drive was a 21-yard catch by Jonathan Garcia on a fourth-and-18 play that put the ball at the Portales 3 with 2:51 left.
Garcia capped the scoring with a 2-yard touchdown run with 2:10 left.
“We were chewing up some yards,” Abreu said. “We were driving it like we were fourwheeling in the snow — just chomping away, chomping away.”
Garcia got the Tigers on the scoreboard on the first play from scrimmage with a 74-yard touchdown run just 16 seconds into the game. Portales responded on its first drive, eating up 5:01 before Urioste scored on a 3-yard touchdown run. That tie the score at 7-all with 6:43 left in the quarter.
It was the best drive of the day for the Rams, who had the ball for just 11 more minutes the rest of the way.
Good responded on the next drive with a 15-yard touchdown run at the 1:37 mark of the first for a 14-7 lead.
In the second quarter, Portales held on to the ball for a mere 1:45, but made the most of that possession late in the first half. Urioste connect with Kellan Hightower on consecutive plays covering 51 yards, with the last completion a 7-yard touchdown that cut the lead to 21-14 with 19 seconds left.