Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Tigers fall in finale, miss playoffs

Special teams burn LLHS again in loss

John Gale News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jgale@news-bulletin.com

Albuquerque Los Lunas got off to a good start to take an early 10-0 lead in its season finale against Highland on Saturday, but numerous mistakes in the kicking game, as well as some turnovers, doomed the Tigers, as the Hornets scored 40 unanswered points en route to a 46-16 victory.

Even with the loss, the Tigers earned their first season at .500 or better since 2004, finishing 5-5 overall and 1-3 in District 5-5A. The Hornets finished 4-6 and 2-2, but their losing record wasn't enough to keep them from getting the No. 10 seed in the state playoffs.

"We had a good season, an improvement from last season, which is good," Los Lunas coach Denvis Manns said. "We have a good nucleus coming back, I think. Hopefully, if everything works out, I'll be here next year and we'll see if we can continue to improve."

Highland running back Brennan Howell did most of the offensive damage for the Hornets, carrying the ball 16 times for three touchdowns and 148 of Highland's 254 yards of total offense.

Hornet quarterback Dylan Chavez only completed 3-of-11 passes, but his receivers broke two screen passes for touchdowns.

Tiger running back Jeffrey Smith had 82 yards on the ground, Ray Contreras passed for 106 yards and Matt Ipock picked off two passes in a losing effort.

Los Lunas looked to be in control of the game at Milne Stadium, as Spenser Waquie connected on a 36-yard first-quarter field goal, and Anthony Salazar added a 15-yard touchdown on a reverse early in the second.

But things changed with six minutes left in the first half, as Highland blocked a Tiger punt, and Jeff Vilaysane scooped up the ball and returned it 17 yards for a touchdown to cut the deficit to 10-6.

"Special teams has been hurting us all year, dropped balls, bad snaps, bad punts and things of that nature, so we know we really need to work hard on that next year," Manns said. "We can't win with turnovers and blocked punts and things like that."

The Hornets then got the ball in excellent field position at the Los Lunas 21-yard line when Tiger punter Jake Duran was tackled after fielding a low snap.

Ipock bailed Los Lunas out with his second interception, but the Tigers got the ball at their own 1-yard line, and they were unable to create much breathing room, only getting to the six by fourth down.

Rather than risk another huge mistake on a punt, Los Lunas elected to intentionally take a safety, but that decision was compounded by the fact that the free kick went out of bounds, which gave Highland the ball on the Tigers' 45-yard line.

The Hornets wasted no time, as Larry Rhodes took a screen pass from Dylan Chavez 45 yards down the right sideline, cutting back at the end, to give Highland its first lead at 14-10, which it took into halftime.

A partially blocked punt a few minutes in the second half gave the Hornets yet another short field, as they took over at the Tigers' 39. Brennan Howell then capitalized with a 12-yard touchdown on a pitch.

Chavez hit Sanue Rcom on a pass for the two-point conversion, the only conversion that Highland made the entire game.

Howell added a 27-yard touchdown a few minutes later, and after the Hornets returned a Los Lunas fumble down to the 4-yard line, Howell punched it in from one yard for his third touchdown of the game.

A couple of minutes later, Rcom broke some tackles to take a screen pass 29 yards down the right sideline for a touchdown.

The Tigers finally scored again with 7:27 left in the game, when Nick Thompson hauled in a 28-yard reception in the front right corner of the end zone to make it 40-16.

The Hornets scored once more to provide the final margin of victory, on Rolando Trammel's 21-yard, tackle-breaking touchdown run down the right sideline.

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