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Santa Fe High extended its football losing skein to 29, as the Hilltoppers scored in the fourth quarter to break a 14-14 deadlock
Demons finish their independent schedule with three tough games at home
By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today
It was what Andrew Martinez dreaded. Turnover, penalties and other mistakes, and going into Friday night’s football game at Los Alamos, he was hoping these miscues would take the night off.
But they didn’t, they appeared twice to nullify Santa Fe High touchdowns. They came on the scene at inappropriate times to spoil a positive play by first-year head coach Martinez’ Demons. On the first, Russell reached the end zone with a 4-yard run. The second came when Russell connected on an apparent 16-yard touchdown pass to Jonah Baca.
Either one would have given Santa Fe High its first leads of the season, but both were negated by Demon infractions.
Despite this, his team battled until the end. A winless squad that hadn’t done much scoring or prevented much scoring twice matched the Hilltoppers before falling 21-14. Before that, Los Alamos (4-2) scored first after a scoreless opening quarter, and Santa Fe High matched it to tie the game 7-7 at halftime.
It was Cade Yost tallying first, sprinting 82 yards down the sidelines with 10:40 to go in the half. He finished with 110 yards on six carries and contributed to his team’s 208 yards on 32 tugs. Santa Fe High answered on senior Marcos Acuna’s 3-yard scramble into the end zone.
Again, the Hilltoppers took the lead with a third quarter TD and back came the Demons to again force the deadlock after both teams converted their PAT kicks. It was Yost again with a short run up the middle. Russell cut the gap to 14-13 on a 1-yard keeper with 7:01 remaining in the half and sophomore Tillman Conway again converted.
So into the fourth quarter they went, Santa Fe High trying to put an end to its 29-game losing streak, wanting to do as it did the last time it won a game 50-0 at this same Sullivan Field back in 2014. But it again had to come from behind after the home team drove 80 yards in five plays to take a 21-14 lead following another successful point-after kick.
And there was no quit before the Demons fell to 0-6. They took over on downs at their own 44 with 5:09 left. Senior Zach Russell was the quarterback after stepping in for senior Levi Lopez for this contest.
Martinez figured it might make a change in his offense. And there were times that it did, for Russell gained some ground running the option and got away some accurate passes. But some were too long and others weren’t caught.
And he was sacked numerous times by the aggressive Los Alamos defense on homecoming night. And the last one hurt the most. After Russell was intercepted by senior Dylan Irish as the rain fell with 3:49 to go, his own defense came together to stop the Toppers on fourth and seven.
They punted to the Santa Fe High 38. After Russell ran for 15 yards to the Los Alamos 47, he tossed an incomplete pass but the Demons were helped by a 15-yard Hilltopper personal foul to put the ball on the 32.
But Lopez lost 2 yards on the ground before Acuna ran for 2. From 3rd and 11 at the 32, Santa Fe called a time out, but back on the field Russell was sacked by Irish, and the ball then went over to Los Alamos.
With the Demons out of time outs, the Hilltoppers took one, two knees from their own 45 as the clock ran down.
There were many Los Alamos penalties, and some stopped some drives, but the ones by Santa Fe High were more costly. On one Demon possession, they were flagged three times. Another time, an infraction cost a second TD scored by Acuna, There were also some dropped passes, but the defense made some big stops to keep things close.
In all, Santa Fe High accumulated 115 yards on 10 plays and Los Alamos 8-for-85.
This was similar to last year’s 25-18 loss at home to the Toppers. That was also one that could have gone either way, but the breaks didn’t go to Santa Fe High in the final minutes. It was the 11th times Los Alamos has won this series in 14 outings, most of them when both were in the same district.
Said Martinez: “We’re still battling the turnovers and the 15-yard penalties. I think we’re getting better, but we just need to take advantage of every opportunity we have.”
Next, it plays three games, all at home. First in will be 2A Escalante, unbeaten in five starts, Roswell (3-2) follows and the independent schedule winds up with a visit from 6A Clovis (4-1).
