Taos loses by ‘one damn yard’

Tigers fall 21-14 to Aztec, finish season with 4-7 record

A yard is 3 feet.

That’s that distance between overtime and a heartbreaking playoff loss for the Taos Tigers.

Sixth-seeded Aztec rode the legs of running back Taylor Seabolt, who had 227 yards on the ground and two touchdowns, while the defense stopped a last-minute Taos drive at the Aztec 2-yard line to preserve a 21-14 win Saturday afternoon in the opening round of the Class 4A playoffs at Tiger Stadium.

The deciding play came in the last 30 seconds as Taos sophomore quarterback Evan Salazar found fellow sophomore Roman Quintana sitting in an opening in Aztec’s zone coverage on a fourth-and-goal inside Aztec’s 10. Quintana tried to turn and dive for the end zone but was stopped shy of the goal to quell the threat and end Taos’ season in a battle of Tigers.

Taos, the 11th seed, finished with a 4-7 record.

“One yard — one damn yard,” Taos head coach Art Abreu Jr. muttered as the team was

on its way back home.

Salazar kept Taos alive with a 40-yard completion to his brother, senior Lionel Salazar, that put the ball at the Aztec 20. The pair connected on a fourth-and-7 play for 10 yards that put the ball at the Aztec 5 before the host team’s defense stiffened.

Aztec was helped by a bad snap on a third-and-goal that led to a 13-yard sack of Evan Salazar, pushing the ball back to the 19. A holding penalty by Aztec on fourth down moved the ball to the Aztec 9, but hope expired on Quintana’s catch with 16 seconds left.

Taos relied heavily on Evan Salazar, who threw for 186 yards and two touchdowns to his brother. The first one came on the opening drive of the game, a 27-yard strike as Lionel Salazar got behind the Aztec secondary in the far corner of the end zone.

The second touchdown connection, a 37-yarder Lionel Salazar came down with in traffic in the end zone, tied the score at 14-all with 4:02 left in the third.

However, Aztec remained tried and true to Siebold. His 65-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter brought his team within 7-6. Siebold collected 54 yards on the opening drive of the second half, which was capped by quarterback Landan Frost’s 5-yard touchdown run. Siebold’s 2-point conversions run made it 14-7, Aztec, with 5:22 left in the quarter.

Siebold broke the 14-all tie in the fourth with a 32-yard touchdown romp through the heart of the Taos defense with more than 4 minutes left.

“Baylor does a great job and just busts his butt out there,” Abreu said.

As sour a taste as the loss was, Abreu said he is excited about the future of the program. Taos loses just five seniors and returns a host of juniors and sophomores who got their feet wet throughout the season.

“I hope everyone enjoyed picking on these juniors and sophomores,” Abreu said. “The guys on the bus are very hungry.”