‘We couldn’t stop him’: St. Mike’s routed
Robertson’s Padilla gouges Horsemen with four TDs
Robertson 44 St. Michael’s 0
LAS VEGAS, N.M. — The St. Michael’s football team has had a hard time all season running the ball with consistency.
Same, too, for offering much protection in the passing department.
On a chilly Friday night at Robertson’s Cardinals Stadium, the Horsemen found something else to ruminate about: No. 2 in a red uniform.
Robertson receiver Antonio Padilla had the kind of game that will give defensive secondaries nightmares. The 5-foot-8 senior led his Cardinals to a 44-0 blowout of visiting St. Michael’s to move one step closer to a District 2-3A title.
Robertson (8-1 overall, 3-0 in district) needs a win over crosstown rival West Las Vegas in next week’s regularseason finale to nail things down and presumably earn a top four seed in the Class 3A playoffs.
If Padilla plays the way he did Friday, they’ll have no problems doing any of that. He scored four touchdowns and finished with 270 yards receiving on just five catches, leading the Cardinals through a dominating second half that turned a 12-0 lead at the midway point into a rout.
“We couldn’t stop him,” said
St. Michael’s head coach Joey Fernandez.
“You hate to say it but he just wanted the ball more than our guys did. They put it out there for him and he went and got it.”
Padilla had touchdown receptions of 76, 81 and 49 yards, and added an 8-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter for good measure. His 254 yards total offense were more than three times that of the Horsemen output (73).
“Sometimes ‘Tonio doesn’t get the ball as much as we want but practi
cally every time he’s got two guys on him,” Robertson head coach Leroy Gonzales said. “He runs a lot of decoy stuff which opens up some big yards because it takes one of the defensive guys out of the box. That’s why [running back] Santiago [Gonzales] has all those rushing yards because one guy can take some of the pressure off by running decoys.”
The Cardinals amassed 441 yards total offense with Gonzales rushing for a gamehigh 112 with a pair of touchdowns. Quarterback Matthew Gonzales had 43 yards rushing with a score to go along with 270 yards passing.
Just as they’ve done all season, the Horsemen had trouble moving the ball on the ground. They had 24 yards at game’s end, a figure hurt badly by the seven sacks by the Robertson defense.
St. Michael’s quarterback Lucas Coriz connected on just 4 of his 16 passes for 49 yards — 41 of them coming on one throw to Kennis Romero early in the second half. It moved the Horsemen inside the Robertson 10-yard line but they were stuffed on fourth down at the 5.
Trailing 12-0, it essentially cost St. Michael’s the game. The Cardinals responded with three running plays that got the ball out to the 19. The next snap saw Padilla snag a Matthew Gonzales pass in front of two defensive backs and run untouched for a backbreaking 81-yard touchdown.
It opened the floodgates for the Robertson offense, which scored on all five of its second half possessions.
Including a 1-yard touchdown run by Santiago Gonzales in the final 90 seconds of the second quarter, it was six straight touchdown drives for the Cardinals.
“We’re just now getting to the point where all the pieces are in place, where we have everyone where we want them,” Leroy Gonzales said. “It’s really kind of coming together, you know?”
That’s a scary thing for the entirety of 3A. For a brief spell early in the season, the Cardinals rose to No. 1 in the rankings but lost at home by double figures to Socorro. All they’ve done since is win four consecutive games by a 191-27 count.
The news is not all good, however. The Meadow City showdown with West Las Vegas next week will not include Leroy Gonzales. The Robertson coach was ejected late in the third quarter after he was assessed his second unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Getting tossed means he must sit out the team’s next game.
“We’ve been doing this for so long and the staff has been creating the game plans for so long that I don’t think it matters if I’m out there or not,” Gonzales said after the game.
This much is certain: Padilla will be there, ready to roll again.
For anyone not wearing a red uniform, that’s bad news.
GAME NOTES
The Horsemen’s leading rusher was Derek Roybal with 13 yards on six carries. … St. Michael’s (4-4, 2-1) closes its regular season at home next weekend against Raton. Fernandez said he believes a win would give the 5-4 Horsemen a home game in the first round of the playoffs. … The Horsemen nearly pulled off a remarkable trick play in the first quarter when Coriz handed the ball off on a jet sweep and then took a lateral pass from his receiver on the flank. He then chucked the ball deep downfield towards Rico Gurule, who had fallen down as the ball was in the air. He got up before the ball arrived but couldn’t make the reception. The Horsemen punted on the next play. … Padilla had an 82-yard touchdown run late in the first quarter but it was called back on a holding penalty.