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Home / Sports News / Visiting Albuquerque Del Norte continues its hot streak and wins the District 5-5A championship by embarrassing Los Alamos, 70-20, Friday night

Visiting Albuquerque Del Norte continues its hot streak and wins the District 5-5A championship by embarrassing Los Alamos, 70-20, Friday night

By Arnie Leshin 

Talk about being red-hot, winning its 5-5A district, and resting in 12th place in the state 5A football standings.

That’s Albuquerque Del Norte, no doubt the current best team with a 4-6 overall record. But the Knights went 3-0 in district and will now be awaiting their seed for the state tournament.

Red-hot? How about chili-hot? How about losing their first four starts and finishing by winning four of their final six outings, most importantly they rolled through the district after being run over, 40-21, by 6A non district Albuquerque Valley, 40-21.

What followed was a 54-2 rout on the road at Capital. Next came romping 50-0 over visiting Santa Fe High, and then, thanks to a 21-14 Jaguar victory over then first place Los Alamos, they responded by heading to the Hilltoppers Friday night and embarrassing the home team, 70-20, at Sullivan Field.

At halftime it wasn’t that bad, with Del Norte only up by 28-13. But the second half had the Knights making a statement with 42 points, three touchdowns in each quarter, and the mercy-rule ending the domination midway through the last quarter.

There are 12 schools selected for the state tournament and presently the 11 ahead of Del Norte all have winning records. But five of them lost Friday night and the Knights should rise in the rankings.

Said their head coach Bruce Binkley: “Of course we’d like a decent seed, but we’ve really put it together and have the confidence to compete at state regardless of how they seed us.”

The routs over Capital and Santa Fe High were expected, but the annilation up at Los Alamos (5-5) was a surprise. This tilt was for the district title and there was never a doubt of Del Norte having a happy ride home and the Toppers’ state tournament hopes probably wiped out. They were 11th in the standings before this contest.

Mixing in the pass and run attack they’ve been successful with, 21 was the magic number as the Knights put up 21 in the first, third and fourth quarters, and “only” seven in quarter number two. In these last three romps, they have scored 174 points and allowed only 22.

Like the 2-4A district before this, just one team will be chosen from it, with the only exception being with Capital getting a bid along with district champion Espanola Valley in 2015. Now Del Norte has to avoid the usual pounding this district has taken in the state tournament every year. Winless is a good word.

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