Capital seeks to end 17-year drought

Joey Fernandez has been around long enough to know that crosstown rival Capital can win a football game over his St. Michael’s team.

Except that it occurred in 2005 and not again as the 6A Jaguars face a 17-year drought against the 3A Horsemen when the teams play Friday night at Capital. Both won their openers, the Jags ran all over visiting 3A Grants 57-6, on Friday night, and on Saturday afternoon at St. Michael’s. the Horsemen had to contend with nasty weather in disposing of Taos, 20-6.

But back in 2005, even present Capital head coach Joaquin Garcia was there to see the 13-7 win in what was his initial year as an assistant under Fernandez. But in the remaining decade until 2015 when Garcia became an assistant with the Jaguars, and is now in his second season as head coach and winless versus St. Michael’s, while Fernandez is in his 20th year as head coach.

Garcia knows that Grants is not St. Michael’s, but his present team doesn’t go back 17 years and with scattered storms the forecast for tonight, he realizes it could be what the Horsemen went through against Taos.

Taking the field after several downpours, the rain was no doubt a factor. The ball was slick and led to bad snaps, poor exchanges, and affected St. Michael’s quarterbacks Zack Martinez and Jacob Katko, the latter’s ability to throw the ball. But the first two plays were big for the home team, there was a 68-yard run by Marcus Leyba and a 67-yard screen pass from Martinez to Taven Lozaza.

But Fernandez was also hesitant, said it will be imperative for his quarterbacks to push the ball downfield in order to open up the run game.

“Our offense is based on the downfield pass,” he said. “We want to get that going, we don’t want to rely on the screen pass, we want to be able to make big plays and hope that the weather doesn’t interfere again.”

As for dominating Grants, it was Capital at its best, with mostly a senior lineup led by versatile quarterback Julian Munoz and running backs Juan Munoz, Julian’s sophomore brother, and seniors Francisco Diaz and Joseph Rodriguez. The offensive rolled up 378 yards with the Munoz brothers and Diaz accounting for over 100 yards along the ground.

Said Diaz, the starting running back: “I feel there’s a lot of things on the line just to beat them. It’s been years since we did. Now we think it will feel good for us, the coaches and the program itself just to get that number out of the way and start fresh.”

Capital displayed an improved and stronger offensive line that pushed the Pirates around in the second half, and in just 10 plays before the 50-point mercy rule ended the rout.

It wasn’t just 2005 that Fernandez lost to the Jaguars. He was on the Horsemen coaching staff tin the 1990s that lost seven of eight times to them. But since 2000, St. Michael’s has had the upper hand in 18 of the last 20 matchups. This included the 2019 game halted by lightning when the Horsemen held a 13-6 lead late in the first half.

“We can’t come out fired-up crazy,” said Garcia. “We have to be under control, play our game, be consistent, and confident.”

Elsewhere at Ivan Head Stadium tonight, Santa Fe High tries to bounce back after a poor outing on the road against West Mesa, but 5A Roswell is on top the rankings in its class after routing Lovingston by 40 points in its opener, and Andrew Martinez’ team will have to improve on all fronts in this one.

On Saturday afternoon in a 1 o’clock start at home, Santa Fe Indian School comes off a dominating loss at Cuba to play Socorro.