Undefeated, top-ranked Raton heads for St. Michael’s Saturday afternoon

It’s all about numbers, except nothing matters until Robertson and West Las Vegas meet up in District 2-3A football Friday night.

For on Saturday afternoon, St. Michael’s gets a visit from undefeated, top-ranked Raton, and if the Horsemen can win this one by more than 13 points, and especially if the Cardinals fall to the Dons, St. Michael’s could slip in.

The Tigers (8-0) have a one-game lead over Robertson (7-1) and St. Michael’s (7-1) and a two-game lead over WLV (6-2), but the possibility still exists for a 3-way tie, which would be broken by a point differential among the trio, and district rules call for a plus/minus of 13 points for each game.

With this, the Cardinals are a plus 11 by virtue of a 2-point loss up at Raton and a 13-point max win over St. Michael’s. The best the Horsemen can do is cancel out their plus/minus by taming the Tigers by at least 13 points.

Now if it ends this way, Raton would be minus 11 via its victory over Robertson and its double-digit setback to the Horsemen. But if the Cards lose to the Dons, they would be out the running by the Saturday tilt.

But Robertson head coach Leroy Gonzales is thinking 3-way deadlock and believes that his team would finish on top if this occurs.

Of course there’s still the possibility that also exists for a perfectly symmetrical final standing in which each team is separated from one another by a single game. Now up at the top an unbeaten district champion, and at the bottom a winless last place team with the three in the middle stacked nicely in between.

Raton and St. Michael’s and Robertson conclude their regular season this weekend and so does West Las Vegas.

The math is simple. If Raton finishes undefeated, it wins the district title and the likely top overall seed in state 3A. But if Robertson wins, it winds up at 8-2, and would presumably land a first-round bye in the playoffs as a top-four seed.

As for St. Michael’s, if it doesn’t upset the Tigers, it would bring a 7-3 overall mark to go with a 2-game losing streak and no way does it get a first-round bye.

This would force a first-round playoff game the first week of November,  scenario that means Joey Fernandez’ team would need to win four times to claim a state title instead of the three for those teams landing a top-four seed and a first round bye.

Entering this weekend, Raton is the undisputed top-ranked team followed by No. 2 St. Michael’s, No. 3 Socorro, No. 4 West Las Vegas and No. 5 Robertson. But that could change with Socorro moving into second place and Robertson into third, providing it disposes over the crosstown rival Dons. Does anyone remember that the Horsemen rode past the Warriors, 35-7.

If the New Mexico Activities Association would take into consideration that 2-3A is the best in its class, it would brings berths for Raton, Robertson, St. Michael’s and West Las Vegas, with Santa Fe Indian School at 5-5 the outsider, although the Braves are ranked 12th after having to forfeit the tilt versus West Las Vegas due to a lack of players.