CAPITAL THRASHES SANTA FE HIGH
Capital clocks Santa Fe High, awaits playoffs Capital 28 SFHS 0
Capital High players warm up Friday prior to the start of their game against Santa Fe High. Capital went on to defeat its crosstown rival 28-0 to win the District 2/6-5A title. The Jaguars now advance to the state playoffs. For complete coverage of the game and more prep events,
Is it 7 p.m. yet?
It was the mantra all week for the Capital football team, and head coach Bill Moon even wrote it on the whiteboard to remind his team what was at stake. Even though the Jaguars faced a District 2/6-5A game against crosstown rival Santa Fe High for a contest that determined the district champion, all they focused on through the week was getting ready for work.
When 7 p.m. Friday hit, Capital did its talking at Jaguar Field. Behind a ground game that churned out 329 yards and a defense that played against type and held the Demons to 81 yards of offense, the Jaguars secured their second title in three years with a convincing 28-0 thumping. The win capped a 3-0 record in district, and it appears likely that Capital (6-3 overall) will get a home game for the opening round of the Class 5A playoffs next week, especially with Alamogordo’s 28-22 win over Artesia in District 4-5A that puts the Bulldogs in last place in that district.
But that is for future discussion. On Friday night, the Jaguars could bask in the glow of taking care of business.
“This whole week has been dedicated to [Friday], 7 o’clock, and that’s about it,” Capital senior center Roger Cruz said.
And what did the Jaguars want to do? Ground and pound. The staple of the offense has been junior running backs Luke Padilla and Gio Munoz, as the pair combined for almost 2,000 rushing yards coming into the game. Padilla has been the workhorse the past two weeks as Munoz recovered from a concussion suffered in a 20-13 win over Albuquerque Del Norte, and he continued that against the Demons.
Padilla had 196 yards and two touchdowns on the ground, but he admitted that none of it was possible without a physical, efficient offensive line.
“Without them, I can’t do anything,” Padilla said. “They’re the rock
of this team. They’re the ones who get the push off the line.”
That was never clearer than on the Jaguars’ opening drive. The Demons (4-6, 1-2) went three-and-out to open the game, and punter Gerald Lee boomed his punt straight up — and straight back down for zero yards, giving Capital the ball at the Santa Fe High 37-yard line.
Aside from two pass plays, one of which was called back for a holding penalty, the Jaguars ran it 12 times on the opening drive. They capped the drive with Manuel Vargas’ 1-yard touchdown on a quarterback keeper for 7-0, with 4:52 left in the quarter.
If anything clued Santa Fe High head coach Andrew Martinez into what kind of night it was going to be, this was it.
“We came out and were flat,” Martinez said. “I think it was that. We’ve played some big games, but I don’t think we were ready for [Friday]. It was really unfortunate because we had a really good week of practice. Maybe we were just a little too good in practice and didn’t have any gas left.”
If there was anything left in the tank, it was expended in trying to fend off a ferocious Capital defense that held the Demons to 11 rushing yards and collected four sacks of quarterback Luc Jaramillo — three of which came from outside linebacker Dominic Martinez.
Moon said he felt the pressure the defense put on Jaramillo neutralized his scrambling ability. He credited that to the experience his team earned last year.
“They all started last year, and most of them played a lot their freshman year, which I am ashamed to say,” Moon said. “They played too much their freshman year, but they always learned. It didn’t always go right for them, but they learned from it.”
What the defense finally learned was to limit big plays. Aside from a 25-yard catch by Santa Fe High tight end Trent Jones and a 24-yard grab by Jeremy Martinez in the fourth quarter, the Demons had just 32 yards of offense.
That allowed Capital to wear down the Demons. The Jaguars took a 14-0 lead just 9 seconds into the second quarter on Padilla’s 16-yard touchdown run. It came on a pitch to the right side on a fourth-and-6 play in which Padilla broke a couple of tackles before diving past the pylon for the score.
The Demons responded with their best drive of the night, getting all the way to the Capital 13 after Elijah Martinez ran for 12 yards. That’s when Dominic Martinez stepped up with consecutive sacks of Jaramillo that thwarted the drive at the Capital 33.
Padilla put the exclamation point on the game to start the third quarter with a 43-yard touchdown gallop. He ran to the right, broke a tackle and cut back left and found the opening to the end zone for a 22-0 lead with 10:19 left. From there, the celebration was on.
Cruz, who was on the 2017 team that won a district title, said this group is much different.
“It’s really the fact that we’re really able to come together as a team, watch filmd and study and execute everything in practice that we want to do in the game,” Cruz, said.
Padilla said the second district title meant a little more because he felt more like a leader on the team than he was as the freshman phenom two years before.
“I had those leaders who pushed me to my limits as a freshman to reach that goal,” Padilla said. “Now, I am able to be in the opposite position to help everyone else out, and that feels great.”
When 9:15 p.m. hit and the work was complete, the Jaguars celebrated with their fans on the east side of the Jaguar Field stands.
But by 9:45, they were out of the locker room and headed home — a night’s work was done.
And next week’s task is about to begin — at 8 a.m. Saturday.