Demons, Horsemen rack up losses, hurting playoff odds
Santa Fe High unable to convert on two opportunites, loses to Del Norte
Del Norte 25 SFHS 22
The Santa Fe High Demons did what they do best on Friday night — they made nothing out of something. In what has been a pattern on the football field all season, Santa Fe High could not make good on the opportunities it afforded itself. The Knights of Albuquerque Del Norte, however, were not as giving.
Powered by a 200-yard game by junior running back Isaiah Ortiz and the passing acumen of Adrian Marquez, Del Norte kept its playoff hopes alive with a 25-22 win at Ivan Head Stadium in a District 2/6-5A game that felt like a playoff game. But it also felt like a tired song that the Demons (4-5 overall, 1-1 in 2/6-5A) have heard time and time again over the season.
“We do what we do best sometimes,” Santa Fe High head coach Andrew Martinez said. “We implode inside the 15-yard line.”
Well, more like inside the Del Norte 10-yard line. Three times, the Demons moved the ball into the red zone. They scored only once — a 5-yard touchdown run by Martell Mora in the second quarter. The other two series ended with a fumble and a turnover on downs.
Del Norte (3-6, 1-1) faced the same scenario three times itself, but came away with 10 points.
“We need to get over ourselves,” said Mora, who scored all three of the Demons’ touchdowns. “We’re shooting ourselves in the foot. We were in the red zone three times, and we didn’t score. And we should have scored, obviously.”
Meanwhile, Del Norte built a 15-0 lead early in the second quarter, held off a Demons’ rally and took a 22-14 halftime lead thanks to some defensive breakdowns by the home team. Marquez, who completed 6 of 11 passes for 124 yards, hit Exsavior Sanchez for a wide-open 33-yard touchdown pass against broken coverage with 1:05 left in the first half.
It was a dreadful opening half for the Demons, who allowed Del Norte 239 yards of total offense.
Martinez said the first quarter and the opening minute of the second set the tone. Del Norte needed just two plays to take a 7-0 lead as Ortiz broke free for an 81-yard touchdown run that looked eerily similar to his 80-yard scamper that opened the scoring the week before in a 20-13 loss to Capital.
The lead grew to 15-o just 37 seconds into the second on Ortiz’s 1-yard touchdown dive.
“It just killed us,” Martinez said. “You can’t spot a team 15 points. That really hurt. I thought we regrouped after that, and we knew at halftime it was going to be a ball game.”
And it was.
Mora finally got the Demons going when he returned the ensuing kickoff after Ortiz’s second score for a 92-yard touchdown to cut the margin to 15-8 with 11:09 left in the first half. The lead was further cut to 15-14 on Mora’s running touchdown with 7:03 left in the half after a 56-yard pass from quarterback Luc Jaramillo to tight end Trent Jones.
The third quarter, though, ended up being the decisive one. Santa Fe High marched to the Knights 8 before those pesky breakdowns reared their ugly heads. Mora lost three yards on first-and-goal, then Jaramillo missed on three straight passes to turn the ball over on downs.
Once again, Ortiz came through in the clutch with a 57-yard run that moved the ball to the Santa Fe High 32. The drive ended with a 22-yard field goal by Coleton Radford to make it 25-14, Del Norte, with 3:20 left in the quarter.
“The second big run was my fault,” Martinez said. “I tried to make a check late, and I shouldn’t have done it. I left our wide side exposed, but we held them to a field goal. But that was the ball game.”
It almost wasn’t, though. Mora’s third touchdown came with 4:02 left on a third-and-23 play from the Santa Fe High 42. He ran a wheel route down the left sideline and got a step on his defender before hauling in Jaramillo’s pass for a 58-yard touchdown to cut the margin to 25-22.
However, the previous play highlighted what has maligned the Demons. A screen pass set Mora up for a similar big play, but his two blockers could not take on the lone Knights defender. Mora gained just two yards.
“I told coach, ‘The screen’s going to be there,’ ” Mora said. “But like I said, it’s just us shooting ourselves in the foot. It was two on one and we couldn’t make the block.”
All is not lost, though. If the Demons can beat district leader Capital, which beat Los Alamos 54-0 at Sullivan Field, in the season finale Nov. 1, they could force a three-way tie with the Jaguars (5-3, 2-0) and Del Norte, provided the Knights beat Los Alamos. In that instance, Santa Fe High has to win by five to tie Capital in the plus/minus point differential used for tiebreakers to win the district. Anything less, gives Capital the title and likely opens the door for Del Norte to nab the 12th and final playoff spot. That possibility had Martinez imploring his team not to feel like the season is over.
“I told them, ‘I don’t want to see you guys moping,’ ” Martinez said. “We had opportunities, we just didn’t take advantage of them.”
Opportunity might still knock, but can the Demons finally answer the call?