Tour of Northern N.M.: St. Mike’s hopes to erase painful memory
Horsemen hope to erase (or at least dull) painful memory of last year’s quarterfinal heartbreak
Gone, but not forgotten. Nor will it be anytime soon at Christian Brothers Athletic Complex. The St. Michael’s football program had an opportunity to write a unique chapter in its historic lore in November, but 4 minutes took away all the Horsemen worked for. After starting the season 0-3, St. Michael’s roared to life by winning six of its final seven games to win the District 2-3A title. The Horsemen were poised to make a deep run in the state playoffs, but the last several minutes of their Class 3A quarterfinal game against district foe Las Vegas Robertson ruined the ending. They watched the Cardinals rally from a 27-13 deficit in the final moments to score two touchdowns and its 2-point conversion on the second score capped a 28-27 win. Instead of St. Michael’s getting a chance to upset top-seeded Albuquerque Hope
Christian, it was Robertson that pulled it off and advanced to their fourth straight state championship game. But an opportunity lost is now motivation to erase such bitter memories. “It was hard to see all of that work go by,” senior tight end Jaden Mifsud said. “But that’s how it is every year for every team in every division but one. That’s how it is. The best team the next year is the one who takes [the loss] the best. That’s what we’re trying to do this year.”
But the road to redemption isn’t as simple as reloading the talent pool once again. St. Michael’s already faced an opening practice in which it had just 31 players before steadily seeing its numbers grow to 46.
However, St. Michael’s head coach Joey Fernandez lamented that a couple of no-shows so far this season
have affected depth and experience, especially on the offensive line.
“We got a lot of linemen, but just not the depth and experience,” Fernandez said. “There were a couple of [returning] linemen we were expecting who aren’t here to give us some depth. That’s hurt us.”
If the line stays healthy, that will give Fernandez and Co. a chance to show off the abundance of weapons the team has. And if anyone can take advantage of talent, it’s “Air Fernandez.”
It starts at quarterback, as sophomore Lucas Coriz takes over behind center after a rocky freshman campaign in which he battled Dominic Morgan for the starting nod on a weekly basis last year. Coriz said he learned a lot about how to keep working hard every day to learn the system.
“When you’re competing [for a spot], you’re trying to win the day with the other dude no matter what,” Coriz said. “It’s the same mind set now: You just have to get better every day.”
Fernandez loves Coriz’s arm, but he is still learning how to work on his short and intermediate throws, which sometimes have too much zip on them. One thing he doesn’t have to coax out of his quarterback is the love of the deep ball.
“He’s a great talent to have, but we still gotta realize that he’s just a sophomore,” Fernandez said. “Everything we’ve put in through the summer and two-a-days [practices], he’s responded to really well. He’s picking up his reads and not just trying to throw the deep ball. He loves the deep ball, but the short passing game is going to win us games.”
And Fernandez feels this year’s group of linemen fits that scheme better than last year, which had plenty of size and beef. The difference between the two lines comes down to understanding the playbook.
“We’re a lot quicker than we were for the last couple of years,” Mifsud said. “But we kinda go on and off between size and quickness.”
“They understand what we’re doing offensively,” Fernandez added about his linemen. “That was one problem we had the last few years. The offensive linemen didn’t really understand our concept and what we’re doing. This group does and has been working hard to memorize and understand where we need to make the blocks.”
The short passing game also helps function as a rushing attack, which might be needed more because of a lack of quality depth at that spot. Senior Ray Lynch will be the starter, while fellow senior Derek Roybal is still a couple of weeks away from returning to the lineup after struggling with a knee injury for much of 2018.
Fernandez said he won’t be afraid to move some of his wideouts in the backfield, much like he did last year with Luke Kastendieck.
“We’re thin, but we got a couple of guys we can switch back there from the receiver end of
it,” Fernandez said. “If something happens, we have somebody who can fill in. It’s nice to have that depth at receiver to where you can stick somebody there [at running back].”
Despite the deficiencies the Horsemen have, Fernandez saw something in the offseason that wasn’t consistently there last year — desire. There were times when St. Michael’s went through the motions and didn’t prepare as well as it should have, but that trait seems to have disappeared.
“That 0-and-3 start last year showed us for this year what we need to do right this summer,” Mifsud said. “We need to show up, work hard and do our jobs and not go through the motions and get the work in. We’ve worked harder and, I think, we’re away from that.”
But not so far away from the lessons of last year to let go of some things.
Four minutes still linger.