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Seeds meant little to visiting 8th seeded Hatch Valley Saturday afternoon when it ended top-seed St. Michael’s state 4A football tournament quest, 26-24, in the quarterfinals
Bears come and conquer with an aggressive defense that was a nightmare for Horsemen senior quarterback Antonio Gabaldon and now play at 4th seeded Ruidoso
By ARNIE LESHIN ,Santa Fe Today
To the dismay and disappointment of St. Michael’s football fans, the last four state champions in 4A and 3A fill out the field for this weekend’s semifinals.
Missing out were the top-seeded Horsemen who went undefeated and won it all in 2012. Home to 8th seeded Hatch Valley Saturday afternoon, the seeds may fall where they may, but it was the red-hot Bears, aggressive, well-coached visitors who made the home team their seventh-straight victim in leaving with a 26-24 victory.
With this, Hatch Valley, a four-time state champion (three times in 2A) and 2015 unbeaten 4A champion had a smooth 4-hour ride home, but not much celebrating were the words of head coach Louis Howell.
Said the first-year head coach: “It was nice to win this one, but now we have to get ready to play at Ruidoso next week. Today, it wasn’t the seeds that mattered, it was come here and take care of business, something we’ve been doing since a horrible start to the season.”
A former assistant with the Bears, Howell’s team lost four of its first five before putting in six wins in a row. And after upping its record to 8-4, it’s now seven-straight.
With St. Michael’s now handing in its gear after having its seven-game win streak snapped and finishing at 9-2, the other 4A semis match-up will have 2nd seeded Portales, the defending state champion after routing Robertson last year, 43-14, will now play at the 3rd seeded Cardinals.
Ruidoso advancing by turning back visiting No. 5 Moriarty, 28-20, for the second-straight time.
While the Rams (10-1), whose only loss was at St. Michael’s, rolled over visiting Taos, 44-11, Friday night, while Robertson, also a Horsemen victim, became 10-1 by getting past the challenge of cross town rival West Las Vegas, 14-13, on its home field Saturday afternoon.
If you were expecting the top four seeds in the Final Four, blame Hatch Valley. It began well and finished well, taking it to St. Michael’s on both sides of the ball. Defensively, it made things miserable for Horsemen senior quarterback Antonio Gabaldon.
Eight times, the Bears sacked him, and when they didn’t, they forced him into hurried throws. Until the final minutes, he had completed but one of 17 passes and had one intercepted. Several throws were dropped due to tight defense, for the receivers also had Bears stalking them.
Gabaldon, who had a stellar season, wound up with one touchdown pass and had seven completions for 193 yards. His pet target, fellow senior Joey Fernandez, Jr., had defenders keeping a close watch and he failed to hang on to a number of passes, and Gabaldon did not have a good day in the punting department as he was also rushed there, too.
Still, the Horsemen had a shot to send the tilt into overtime, but failed when after Gabaldon connected on a clutch fourth down 53-yard TD toss to senior Shawn Roybal to cut the gap to 26-24 with little time left, his try for the 2-point conversion found Roybal, but he was just a step outside the end zone.
Now out of time outs, St. Michael’s could do nothing but watch Hatch Valley senior quarterback Chandler Carson take three knees, toss the ball in the air, then sprint to his happy sideline while the home crowd became silent and its team had to realize its football season was over. To the seniors, it was no more high school ball.
After a scoreless opening quarter in which both teams failed to score after large drives, The Bears stuck to their single wing offense that took them 90 yards in a dozen plays before senior Saul Trujillo ran it in from the 6. The PAT try failed after a poor snap and it was 6-0.
But back came St. Michael’s and that warmed up its fans on a chilly, rather windy day. Starting on its own 20, Roybal quickly sped through the line and down the sidelines for an 80-yard touchdown, with a big block from Fernandez paving the way. But Andrew Salazar’s PAT kick also failed via a bad snap.
The second quarter also brought more points. Hatch Valley went up 13-6 when, from his own 5, Gabaldon’s punt was blocked by Bears’ freshman Jose Triste and was pounced on by a teammate in the end zone. Trujillo ran in the 2-point conversation at 6:38 of the quarter.
Not long after, Fernandez ran the kickoff back to his own 30 and senior Israel Chavez took off for 70 yards and into the end zone. It stayed at 13-12 when Salazar’s PAT try hit the crossbar. That’s the way it remained at halftime.
The Bears had no problem running the ball behind Trujillo and Carson, did little passing, but Horsemen junior Luke Kastenicek made his first of three interceptions to end a threat at his own 38. Gabaldon then ran 12 yards for a first down at the Hatch 40, but he then missed on back-to-back passes.
In the third quarter, it was Kastenicek picking off another pass from freshman quarterback Oscar Gonzales and dashing 45 yards to pay dirt. Again, the point-after didn’t make it but the Horsemen were in front 18-13.
That was it for three quarters. For St. Michael’s, the problem was that Hatch Valley had no idea of slowing down. With 4:40 showing on the scoreboard, the Bears went 37 yards in five plays and Carson’s 29-yard burst off left tackle gave his team the lead at 19-18. It went for the two, but it failed.
Now down by one, it got worse for the home side when on second and 10, Gabaldon was sacked, and punting one play later had it blocked into the end zone, Bears’ senior Dylan Garay collected it, and now, after the point-after was successful, it was 26-18 with 3:12 remaining.
St. Michael’s then made that final try. It was fast and looking good for overtime when just a step by Roybal was out of the corner of the end zone and, like the saying goes, whoever has the ball last, and that was Hatch Valley happily taking three knees and overturning the top seed.
Did St. Michael’s take these visitors lightly? Maybe, maybe not, it might have not though much of playing an 8th seed (which overwhelmed 8-2 9th seed, visiting Shiprock, 50-0, the previous week), but it was more like these Bears had more of an appetite, and did have plenty of tournament history to fall back on.
