The last time Santa Fe High won a football game was 50-0 over Los Alamos up on the hill in 2014, now it hopes to do the same and end its 29-game losing streak

Demons’ head coach Andrew Martinez says his team has to cut down on turnovers to win again at Sullivan Field 

By ARNIE LESHIN , Santa Fe Today

September 3rd, 2014, that’s the night that the Santa Fe High football team headed up to Los Alamos and dominated the Hilltoppers, 50-0, at Sullivan Field.

It was the last time the Demons won. Since than, they have dropped 29 in a row. Now they hope for a repeat of that night when they again play at Los Alamos Friday night.

First-year head Andrew Martinez has his fingers crossed. After this, his independent schedule winds up with home games against undefeated 2A Escalante, Roswell (2-2) and 2-6A school Clovis (3-1), with its lone loss in overtime to top-ranked Rio Rancho.

“I said from the start that this is not an easy schedule,” Martinez said. “We’ve played some good teams, but turnovers have hurt us. Fumbles, interceptions, penalties, other mistakes that we have to correct, because that’s been our season in a nutshell.”

The Hilltoppers, at 3-2, have been a familiar foe for Santa Fe High. Once in the same district, they have met 13 times since 2014, with Las Alamos

winning 10 of them. But from 2012 to 2014, the Demons were victorious and dominated with 140 points to 39. But the rout they applied in 2014 should be most on their minds.

“They’ve got a good program,” Martinez said. “They execute their offense very well, and are always aggressive on defense. They’ve got a very good player in No. 6 (6-foot-1, 200-pound senior Jack Stewart), a running back and linebacker.”

Martinez has made a change at quarterback, moving senior Levi Lopez to running back and defense end, and inserting senior Zach Russell at the signal caller. Lopez is 5-11, 170, Russell 6-3 and 185, and when at wide receiver, he was one of Lopez’ top targets.

“Our kids come to play, they play hard, we’ve got to quit hurting ourselves,” said Martinez, who was an assistant coach at St. Michael’s since 2000. “But I believe we have an opportunity to win Friday night.”

The Hilltoppers have been up and down. They have shut out Pojoaque Valley, Grants and Gallup, a trio that has lost 12 of 14 starts. They were blanked at home against previously undefeated Moriarty, and fell to Kirtland Central.

Stewart is their best player, but they also have some good size in the lineup with 6-foot, 225 junior Levi Guarello, 5-10, 225 senior Arturo Rodriguez, 5-10, 245 junior Chris Pittman, and the biggest of all, 6-5, 235 senior Devin Cantua. They are all two-way linemen, and Guarello is also the center.

Running the ball well for Santa Fe High has been 5-7, 125 senior Isaiah Fordham. There’s also 5-9, 135 senior Robert Alarid and 5-8, 205 senior fullback Jared Jones, the team captain.

For size, there’s 6-1, 240 lineman Trent Jones, 6-foot, 225 senior tackle Raul Garcia, 6-foot, 200 sophomore lineman Andres Rodriguez, and 6-1, 215 senior tackle Nathaniel Dorsey.

In last year’s meeting between the teams at Ivan Head Stadium, the Demons had a great chance to win, but fell 25-18. They would be happy to reverse that this time.

Also on Friday night, Capital High comes off the stunner over Moriarty last week to play host to Lovington (2-3) in a non district game. The following week the Jaguars start District 2-5A at winless Albuquerque Del Norte.

Saturday afternoon, St. Michael’s comes off a bye weekend after turning back previously unbeaten Portales and takes on winless Bernalillo.

But there’s a lesson to be learned here, for the Horsemen were underdogs to the Rams and the Jaguars were underdogs to the Pintos, and so St. Michael’s can’t overlook the Spartans because the ball takes funny bounces and upsets can occur.