SantaFeToday.com Santa Fe’s Hometown News
By Arnie Leshin
It could be a tough District 2-3A football opener for St. Michael’s Saturday afternoonwhen West Las Vegas comes to Christian Brothers Athletic Complex.
The kickoff is scheduled for 1 o’clock and is the 21st such opener for Horsemen head coach Joey Fernandez. His team is 4-1 with the loss at Los Alamos, and has the more rounded offense ground game via its rushing attack, while the Dons are 4-2 and have a rising quarterback in junior CJ Perea, and so they depend more on their air game.
Along with Robertson, these are the top trio in the district, and the Cardinals have a Friday night non-district tilt at Pojoaque Valley.
Fernandez’ team has pieced together a backfield of juniors. There’s 6-foot-1, 169-pound junior quarterback Reed Bass with a balanced rushing game behind the likes of juniors 5-9, 207 power back Mathias Duran, 5-11, 154 speedster Cole Sandoval, and 5-9, 166 Soren Annon.
There’s also versatility with this trio. All three are quality starting linebackers, plus Reed can play safety.
The squad also has a pair of other-gender kickers in seniors Tara Schneider and Jada Lujan, both off the girls soccer squad.
Then there’s 6-1, 175-pound freshman Ryan Hunt who made his first start at defensive end last week in the 19-7 win over visiting Aztec, and contributed five tackles and a pair of sacks.
It was his second varsity game and he’s the young brother of junior runner-swimmer state champion Raylee and graduated Logan now a freshman at Texas Christian University and a former Lady Horsemen soccer player.
For West Las Vegas, Perea has completed 62 percent of his passes and averaging more than 215 yards a game. His ability to spread the field and deliver accurate throws makes him a multiple threat.
And so if you want to know about the Dons, built a lead and you best add to it because their passing game means they are rarely out of it. Yes, as can St. Michael’s, WLV can score, it has talent in wide receivers and can keep the chains moving.
Now although West Las Vegas has been rather stingy at times on defense, it might have problems there, although its district schedule finds it home for three of its four rivals, with the lone trip down I-25 against the Horsemen, and it’s still the St. Michael’s superior balanced offense versus the Dons’ questionable roller-coaster ride defense.
Weather conditions in Santa Fe Saturday afternoon is for cloudy skies, and that can also make it interesting.
Elsewhere on Saturday has district foes Santa Fe Indian School up at Raton also at 1 o’clock.
