Five area schools traveled Friday night, but only Capital returned victorious

Well, at least Capital took care of buisness.

It was hit the road time Friday night for football and the Jaguars joined Santa Fe Indian School, Espanola Valley, Pojoaque Valley, and Los Alamos and returned with the only victory among them after turning back Miyamura in Gallup, 22-6, in District 5-5A.

It also evened the Jags overall record at 4-4, and 1-1 in district as they travel to undefeated Farmington, one of six remaining in the state, in non-district play Friday night.

But in dropping the Patriots to 2-6 overall and 0-3 in district, Capital did a neat job on defense and once again the offense was led by junior quarterback Julian Munoz as he ran for a pair of touchdowns and the D forced six turnovers.

Jaguars’ first-year head coach Joaquin (Wax) Garcia was happy with the result

as he was missing a number of offensive and defensive players.

“It’s fun to see our kids being successful in what we’re doing,” said Garcia, an assistant coach under Bill Moon the last two years, and at St. Michael’s before that. “You can just see the brightness of their eyes, and that’s good. That’s all I want.”

The visitors had to come from behind against a short deficit when the home side tallied in the opening quarter, but failed on the PAT conversion to lead 6-0. At the 5:53mark of the second quarter, junior Isaiah Martinez bolted into the end zone from 4 yards out to end a 69-yard pass play

Martinez sped up the middle, followed his blockers, and tied it at 6-6 before Munoz ran for the two-point lead that brought the halftime score.

It was midway through the third quarter when Capital upped its advantage to 16-6. It began the drive from its own 30 and Munoz finished it with a 26-yard touchdown run and again added the 2-point conversion with 7:19 remaining in the quarter.

On defense, it forced four of its turnovers in the second half, three of them halting Miyamura’s march into Jaguars’ territory. Anthony Anaya III, making his initial appearance since regaining his academic eligibility along with teammate Avelino Trujillo, and both picked off a pair of Patriots’ throws.

“It was good, it was positive,” Garcia said. “Before the game I told the guys if we do well and control the turnovers, we’ll be fine.”

The Jaguars added a fourth quarter touchdown off another turnover, and then backed up their bus for the winning ride home.

The other four teams that traveled weren’t as successful. In fact, they all took a pounding.

Indian School, under new head coach Bill Moon who was replaced after last season at Capital by Garcia, took the ride to undefeated Raton (8-0) and left with a 44-14 setback. At Moriarty, Pojoaque Valley fell hard at 53-6, at winless Espanola Valley, the Sundevils lost their eighth in a row at Taos, 44-0, and at Piedra Vista, Los Alamos was blanked 47-0.

The grand total for this losing quartet was given up 201 points and scoring only 20.

Unbeaten reigning state 6A champion Rio Rancho Cleveland (7-0) won 44-33 at Albuquerque Volcano Vista Thursday night, with the state runner-up Rio Rancho High (7-0) shutting down Albuquerque Atrisco Heritage, 50-0, Friday night. In 4A, both unbeaten teams Los Lunas (7-0) and Farmington (8-0), with a bye weekend, stayed unblemished. In 2A, Tularosa is 5-0 after winning 27-0 over Lordsburg.

Tight tussles had Artesia edging Roswell, 30-29, New Mexico Military Institute nipping Dexter, 17-15, Cibola getting past West Mesa, 14-7, Bloomfield turning back Aztec, 20-17, and Las Cruces Centennial pulling out a 42-41 nail-biter over Las Cruces.

Nine schools are still winless.