Well, what do you know, both St. Michael’s and neighboring rival Santa Fe High are undefeated

Andrew Martinez was in a good mood, sounded like he’s looking forward to Friday night‘s visit from St. Michael’s in an early season clash of undefeated rivals at Ivan Head Stadium, with 7 o’clock the kickoff.

And why not? In his fifth season as head coach of Santa Fe High football, he has his best shot at the Horsemen. He’s on the short end (0-5) of the 21-game losing skein against the program where he assisted head coach Joey Fernandez.

To break it down, all the other Demons 16 setbacks against their Siringo Road neighbors occurred with other head coaches. All under Fernandez, a St. Michael’s graduate who last Saturday afternoon welcomed another former Horsemen grid assistant, now the first-year Capital head coach, Joaquin (Wax) Garcia, to Christian Brothers Athletic Complex and mercy-ruled the Jaguars, 60-8.

But that was that and this is this. That was a very fired-up St. Michael’s that rolled past three victims in the shortened 3-game COVID-19 campaign that the Horsemen wished was a regular-season tilt, then they opened this season by routing Taos, 30-3, on the road, and stand at 2-0.

And this is this, a well-prepared 2-0 Santa Fe High team. It opened at Moriarty and returned with a 27-13 triumph. But Martinez thought they could have played better.

“We made some mistakes at Moriarty,” he said, “but played well enough to win and stop making mistakes. “We did have a very first half in the opener against Robertson.”

While the Horsemen have a huge advantage over Capital and Santa Fe High in the last two decades, Martinez has done a marvelous job in piecing together a roster with a balanced offense featuring senior quarterback Luc Jaramillo and senior running back Martell Moya. Jaramillo reads the defense, can put the ball in the air, can scoot away from tacklers, and hands the ball to Mora and throws the ball to Mora.

“Martell,” said Martinez, “has rushed for 330 yards in two games, as well as 65 through the air, to total 484. He has very good speed, has scored eight touchdowns, and just a real good player. Luc is in his fourth year as a starter, can take off if needed and is a shifty runner with a good arm.”

There is size, with 16 plus 200-pounders, with the big guy 6-foot-2, 285-pound senior Santiago Quintana, who plays guard and defensive tackle. There is depth and there is an aggressive defense that did a number on the Robertson rushing game.

St. Michael’s can match all this. It totals about 10 players who tip the scale at over 200 pounds, and the big man among it is 6-2, 258-pound sophomore Xavier Alvarez. It’s defense has been stout, good against the pass and solid versus the run.

With a dozen seniors and 11 juniors, the Horsemen have plenty of experience. They also have some interesting sophomores and freshmen.

But the ground game does not rely on one, two, three or even four ball carriers. With senior quarterback Lucas Coriz running the show with his run-pass offense, he finds most of his time handing off to senior co-captains Daymon Lujan and Isaiah Salazar, and junior Marcus Leyba.

There is depth there, and in wide receivers, it’s senior co-captain Devin Flores on top of the heap.

“I was at the game against Capital,” said Martinez, “and St. Michael’s has a very offense, and my kids can’t make mistakes rather then forcing St. Michael’s into mistakes. They’re anxious to win this time, they’re a good bunch, get along very well.”

The same with St. Michael’s in quest of Fernandez’ fourth state championship. The long-time head coach said he was ready for a big season when the coronavirus pandemic became a globe-size issue, and that is why his kids couldn’t wait to take the field again.

There you go, Ivan Head Stadium is the place, the home field of Santa Fe High where they expect perhaps a turnout of approximately 3,500. In Martinez’ time at St. Michael’s, this rivalry was home and away between the schools, but both schools agreed that Christian Brothers Athletic Complex could not come near the attendance figures at Ivan Head, thus the Demons are home for the scheduled 7 o’clock kickoff.

Weather reports are for a high of 80 degrees in the daytime, but that doesn’t apply to the night time. No face masks are required and protocol calls for no social gathering.