Minus its suspended head coach, St. Michael’s ended its 3-game losing skein by rolling over cross-town rival Capital, 42-6

Horsemen grabbed the quick lead and won going away with touchdowns in each quarter

By Arnie Leshin 

No matter where long-time head football coach Joey Fernandez was, his St. Michael’s youngsters did fine under designated interim coach Kevin Hauck. They arrived at Jaguar Field Friday night with a dismal 0-3 record on their minds, and from the outset, the Horsemen had things their own way via a 42-6 romp over Capital.

Before this, it was expected that the Jags could mix it up with their cross-town rivals and make a game of it.

But it never happened. With Fernandez suspended from this game after being ejected from last week’s game at Bloomfield, it didn’t matter, for St. Michael’s took the field ready to play, short one coach but prepared to score enough points.

In what was the 43rd game of this series, the Horsemen made an early statement on the way to its 29th win in the series. It quickly got away to a 7-0 lead after one quarter, and added two more in the second quarter for a 21-0 halftime advantage. It was led by quarterbacks Dominic Morgan, a senior,    and freshman Lukas Coriz, and running back Derrick Roybal, and a stout defense, it was not going to be close, and the Jags fell to 1-2-1.

For Capital, coming off a 41-0 trouncing at Lovington, it was mistake after mistake, whether on penalties or on botched-up plays. It was midway through the third quarter that the Jaguars avoided a shutout.

It began on their kickoff recovery at their own 27.

Justine Vargas began with a 13-yard run to the outside, than connected with running back Luke Padilla, who sped down the sidelines for a 50-yard run to the Horsemen 7. Two plays later, Leo Guzman ran it in from the 11 after a toss from Morgan, but the PAT failed, and the home team trailed 28-6 after

St. Michael’s had upped the lead with its TD in the third quarter on a Morgan 30-yard toss to senior Aiden Gantt, which no doubt brought smiles from his dad, the school president.

Senior Salazar was perfect with the PATs, six-for-six. Morgan, the back-up quarterback last season, was hot in the opening quarter, leading a 60-yard drive in seven plays before Roybal ran it in from 7 yards out for his first of two touchdowns. Morgan also ran one in on a pass option, and young Coriz took charge by engineering a long drive on the way to the final TD.

The Demons have another toughie Friday night when unbeaten non-district Bernalillo makes a visit. The 4-0 Spartans come off a 53-0 rout over Shiprock.

The week after, St. Michael’s plays its annual game with Santa Fe High at Ivan Head Stadium. The Horsemen could be 4-3 after playing the Demons, Shiprock and Santa Fe Indian School.  

Capital heads for Moriarty for Friday night’s non-district contest. The Pintos took a 48-6 setback against Valencia.

As for Santa Fe’s 49-0 whooping loss to undefeated Taos Friday night, it couldn’t say it wasn’t expected, but at least the 35-game losing streak was over in the win at Espanola Valley.

While shutting down Santa Fe, the Tigers struck quickly with three opening quarter touchdowns that increased to 35-0 at the half. With reserves on the field, they settled for only two TDS in the last two quarters.

Bloomfield was off this weekend, but Lovington came off a rout over Capital to suffer a whooping 58-6 loss to Hobbs. And Portales didn’t have much time to celebrate the win over Santa Fe when it was routed 28-6 by Goddard. Bloomfield had won handily over St. Michael’s and probably needed this open date to rest up.

Also, Roswell High stunned defending state champion Los Lunas, 42-20, Espanola came off the defeat to Santa Fe by rolling over Gallup, 42-6, Raton won 35-14 over Tucumcari, and Santa Rosa got by Estancia, 20-14.