St. Michael’s and crosstown rival Capital get together early this football season

After nasty weather played under cloudy skies and a slippery wet grass football field, and make room for an abundance of penalties, St. Michael’s will accept it as a 20-8 opening win over visiting non-conference foe Taos Saturday afternoon.

And one day earlier, on Friday night, Capital opened its campaign at Jaguar Field and shellacked the visitors from Grant, 57-6.

And this Friday night these crosstown opponents meet up at Capital, the Horsemen hoping to play a better game than the one they left behind at home, and the Jags hoping to reel in another victory.

And no doubt Capital’s head coach Joaquin Garcia, who like Santa Fe High’s head coach Andrew Martinez, was a football assistant at St. Michael’s, now in his second year will remain with his ground game that grinded out 378 yards in this impressive opener. Not to say that Grants was a real solid opponent, but anytime you score 57 points and win as you may, it was a good start in Jaguar land.

For Garcia, it was a mixture of offensive and a stout defense that worked. First of all, those numbers along the ground behind three Capital players who went over 100 yards for the game. Then there was its aggressive defense that forced a pair of touchdowns off of turnovers, and even a safety.

The Jaguars also traveled by air behind senior quarterback Julian Munoz as he completed five of eight passes for 57 yards and a touchdown. But he also took turns running the ball with a team-high 127 yards and two touchdowns.

And he had company. Senior Francisco Diaz picked up 121 yards and scored twice, junior Joseph Rodriguez went for 107 rushing yards and tallied once, and sophomore Juan Munoz tugged the ball only five times but for 109 yards, in addition to a 34-yard TD in the fourth quarter that increased the score to 51-6 with 4:04 remaining.

Garcia said that he wanted to shut down Grant’s passing game, which is why he unleashed his running game.

Meanwhile, at St. Michael’s the weather conditions made the thick green grass at the Chirstian Brothers Athletic Complex soggy, and which resulted in numerous errant throws and a handful of poor snaps.

On defense, the Horsemen knocked 6-foot-8 quarterback Daemon Ely for a loop. Obviously towering over the other players, he was slow in setting up a play and many times the defense would get to him quickly. He made good on only 4-of-20 pass attempts and an intercepted pass led the home side add to a one possession advantage.

Each of the Tigers first four possessions stalled on downs inside St. Michael’s territory, including three in the end zone. Senior Zack Martinez was the Horsemen starting quarterback, and in the second half he shared it with senior Jacob Katko. Martinez played many more minutes and he helped pave the way to 299 total yards, while Taos had only 134.

Senior running back Marcus Leyba had a good game along the ground for St. Michael’s, carrying the ball 18 times for 159 yards. But special teams for the Horsemen weren’t all too good and the nasty weather might have contributed to this. Plus they also were penalized 10 times for 105 yards.

The St. Michael’s captains — all seniors — are Katko, Leyba, Creed Chavez, Andy Dang,

Gage Bass, Zack Martinez, Michael Pacheco, Issiah Mossman, Dillon Pacheco, Mathew Pacheco, Jackson Morgan, and Taven Lazada.

Santa Fe High plays host to Roswell on Friday night after losing its opener at West Mesa, and then is home to St. Michael’s. Last year, the Demons defeated both St. Michael’s and Capital.

The Horsemen follow this tilt with a contest the following Friday night at Santa Fe High, and are then home to Los Alamos. The Jaguars travel up to Los Alamos for a Friday night test, and then play at Alamogordo the following Friday.