SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
It was a fun time Friday night for Capital High football.
It was a rousing opening game turnout at Jaguar Field, and head coach Bill Moon began his 36thyear of coaching by getting all the 50 players that dressed on the field in the 55-0 rout of Crownpoint.
Even though Capital is 5A and Crownpoint 3A, the Eagles traveled all the way from the farthest northeast corner of the state to play. They stepped in last spring to schedule this game after Pojoaque Valley cancelled its opener at Capital after perhaps giving thought to last year’s 67-14 setback.
“We had only nine games,” said Moon, “and we wanted to play 10, so we sealed a deal with Crownpoint.”
It wasn’t much of a game. The Jaguars scored once in the first quarter on a 40-yard breakaway by junior standout Luke Padilla with no defenders in sight. They made it 8-0 via the two-point conversion. Early in the second quarter it was Padilla again, this time taking the handoff 60 yards into the end zone.
And 33 second-quarter points were added to a 41-0 lead at halftime.
“I had mostly all of my freshmen play the second half,” Moon said. “A few times, I sent a senior in, but that was only to direct a play.”
The back-up running back, junior Gio Munoz added a touchdown and ran the ball five times for 120 yards. In the fourth quarter, freshman free safety Anthony Anaya scored the final touchdown by returning an interception 35 yards with only two minutes showing on the scoreboard clock.
The Jaguars added eight points in the third quarter and one more in the final quarter before the mercy-rule was applied.
“We had great support from the freshmen in the stands,” said Moon. “They were loud and full of energy.”
Defensively, it was all negative for the visitors, negative yards, negative first downs.
The Jaguars displayed their new Nike jerseys that had silver numbers in the
back and Capital in silver in the front. The school colors turquoise and blue were also inscribed, but it was the more noticeable gleaming silver that was the attraction.
Next Friday night, Capital expects a much tougher test when it plays at Deming. When the teams played at Capital last season, they were tied at 14-14 when the skies emptied and wind conditions delayed the contest until it was finally called.
“They thought we might be able to continue around 1 a.m.” Moon said, “and that’s way past my bedtime.”
Deming opened last week with a 26-19 victory at Goddard.
