It’s been a long time since Santa Fe High had a winning football season, but it came to pass Saturday a

Santa Fe High couldn’t wait to put its final knee down as the final seconds ticked away at Ivan Head Stadium.

The regular-season football finale Saturday afternoon was history, the scoreboard showed that the Demons held off the late challenge by Albuquerque High and barely hung on to the 41-38 triumph that brought its first winning campaign since 1998.

In his fifth year as head coach, Andrew Martinez saw his team wind up at 6-4overall and with a slight chance of gaining the state 6A playoffs after getting away to an impressive start and then tackling the District 2/5 schedule, except that even winning hasn’t been easy.

This game looked like a shoo-in. Demons senior quarter Luc Jaramillo and his senior buddy running back Martell Mora. They combined to go from a 14-12 lead after one quarter to 21-12 at halftime, and then upped it to 35-18 heading into the fourth quarter.

And then Martinez began to become concerned.

“Winning is supposed to be hard,” he said, “but it shouldn’t be this hard.”

But it was. The Bulldogs (2-7) weren’t finished, weren’t exactly ready to back up the bus and head down I-25 South. And just like that, they made a game of it. The well-attended home team crowd of a game that was rescheduled from 1 o’clock to 4 o’clock because of a lack of game officials, looked content, happy to carry this victory into the its initial winning season in 23 years.

Behind three touchdowns from Mora, a stellar finale for Jaramillo, and some big contributions from senior Daniel Wright on both sides of the ball. Not only did he again have a stellar tilt at outside linebacker, but the 5-foot-11, 175-pound Wright also added some key offensive plays down the stretch.

And the stretch is when it became a game, which began in the third quarter, the time when the Demons had problems all season. From 35-18 to 35-24, to 35-30,

Santa Fe High was relieved to add on another late touchdown to put the advantage at 41-30 and no-quit Albuquerque High’s final late touchdown made it 41-38 as it finally made the 2-point conversion after Demons junior Molly Wissman missed her first PAT kick that was blocked after making the others.

“I guess we were tired out there,” said Mora, one of the state’s top running backs and who plays both ways, “and they just ran up four touchdowns after our offense cooled off. Thankfully, we held them off and not to lose another game in which we led.”

Early in the third quarter, Santa Fe High found its way to the end zone and its lead went from 21-12 to 28-12. This began at its own 39, but a 15-yard personal foul put the ball back at 16 and became 2nd and 25. But Jaramillo, while getting rushed, threw a shot pass to senior wide receiver Isaiah Madril and he took it all the way to the Bulldogs’ 25 on what was an 84-yard pass play

after Martell Mora finished it with his second touchdown.

Then there was an unexpected onside kick by the Demons. Senior Patrick Gardner got off the kick, Junior Israel Rodriguez pounced on the ball, and on 4th and 2 at the Albuquerque High 48, Jaramillo faked a hand-off to Mora and carried the ball for the first down.

On a 12-yard toss to Mora at the 37, Jaramillo again hooked up with Mora on a 30-yard pass that the latter caught at the 20 and just about walked into the end zone. This concluded the 11-play drive and was Mora’s second TD of the game

Then in the fourth quarter, the Demons added what became the insurance touchdown. On a fake punt by Mora, the ball went to Wright and he sped 30 yards for the first down followed by Mora’s 19th touchdown of the season, a 10-yard scamper and No. 3 for the game. But this time, Wissman’s point-after attempt was blocked.

Meanwhile, Wright had knocked down three passes, stopped a 2-point conversion when he abruptly downed the ball carrier, and it was another big right game for Wright.

Jaramillo also did well. He threw for 246 yards and a trio of touchdowns while also running the ball into the end zone to score. The big stretch for the 5-10, 170 signal-caller came via a 10-for-11 run that started near the end of the opening quarter and tallied 28 unanswered points.

But winning has been difficult for a program that has celebrated a winning season only three times over the past 35 years, and owns two losing streaks of 35 games or more in that span. But it was an emotional end this time for Martinez’ 20 seniors who might have played their final prep game if the Demons don’t land in the postseason.

Of course, this includes the one-two punch of Jaramillo and Mora, whose younger brother, Alex, is a sophomore and another ball carrier to be reckoned with, but big brother Martell had another standout tilt, where he didn’t have his usual long runs, but still had the most rushes and again played a stellar game both ways.

In the final minutes, Martinez inserted junior Andrew Allen to replace Jaramillo, a 4-year starter, and it was Allen who took the final knee, the team and its fans might have taken a collective deep breath with its 3-game losing streak over and by winning the season opener and the closer.

“I have to give credit to our special teams,” Martinez said, “we limited their returns except for one, and the onside, the fake punt, and the kicking game had a real good game and we needed that.”

He added that getting to the playoffs would be great, but it’s a long shot with his team in fifth place in the district standings despite being 12th ranked in 6A. But he said that getting to the mountaintop of a winning season made the maddening journey worthwhile.

As was the 1978 state basketball championship when Santa Fe High defeated Albuquerque High.