SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
The St. Michael’s fans were already making reservations for a trip to Albuquerque Friday night and playing top seed, undefeated Hope Christian in the 3A semifinals.
With only 4:13 remaining, their side was up 27-13 after senior quarterback Dominic Morgan connected on his third touchdown pass, and it didn’t look good for visiting Robertson and its supporters. No matter, it wasn’t backing up the bus.
No way, even if the Cardinals were frustrated by the 39-7 defeat hung on them here in the regular-season. Not again? Well, they had nothing to lose but the game and another disappointing ride back to Las Vegas.
“We figured we still had time and the ball”, said senior quarterback Brandon Lucero, “so let’s see what we could do.”
They did enough. Hampered earlier by the Horsemen defense, Lucero and company now put together back-to-back touchdowns, first converting the PAT, and then, still down by a point at 27-26,went for the lead as Lucero found Matthew Gonzales in the end zone, and the two-point play brought a 28-27 lead, the first time for them in the last two starts between the district rivals.
In the previous game that was to bring first place for the home team, Lucero had a miserable time. He was constantly rushed, and when he did get off a pass, it was either short, long, or dropped. Same with his option. He couldn’t get his legs to gain ground.
Now, after a mediocre game at this point, he reared back and found Gonzales unguarded in the middle of the field, and he dashed to the Horsemen 11. On the next play, Lucero hit senior Antonio Padilla from 11 yards to cut the gap to 27-20.
He wasn’t finished and Michael’s gets the assist when it fumbled the ball at its own 47. Again Lucero was going to the air, again connecting with Gonzales for 51 yards, who made it to the Horsemen 1. With 1:23 left, Lucero ran the ball in, and the two-point play now had the red and black fans cheering and the blue and white home fans wondering what happened.
Plus the St. Michael’s sideline was stunned and head coach Joey Fernandez had little time to respond. It was shaping up to be a second-straight quarterfinal setback at home, last year for the No. 1 seed Horsemen in 4A when Hatch Valley departed with a frustrating 26-24 squeaker.
Morgan had been sharp, not as much as he was in the previous contest, but he threw three TD passes and ran for another touchdown.
Now he had to find his way to the end zone again as the scoreboard kept ticking down, From his own 18, he tried to hit senior sprinter Luke Kasteniack at the 35, but the toss was dropped. Again he looked for K
asteniack, and this time he caught the ball but could only make his way for 11 yards on fourth and 14 following a 10-yard infraction against St. Michael’s.
The ball now belonged to the happy visitors and they just made some short runs until the final whistle sounded. They now take a 10-2 record to Hope Christian (12-0) while the Horsemen finished at 6-5 after losing their first three games.
An observation was that St. Michael’s was playing not to lose and Robertson was playing to win. It beat the clock and left the Horsemen with little time.
And the difference was the successful 2-point conversion. It was either make it or wind up falling short. For the Cardinals, it wasn’t over til it’s over.
