Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Eagles overwhelmed by Tigers

BHS held second-quarter lead at Aztec

Jason W. Brooks News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jbrooks@news-bulletin.com

Aztec One of the most successful seasons in the history of the Belen High School football program came to an end Saturday when the Eagles dropped a 42-20 decision to the Aztec Tigers at Fred Cook Memorial Stadium in the Class 4A state semifinals.

Though the Eagles were dominated in most statistical categories, the Eagles gave the Tigers a tough game, leading in the second quarter and fighting until the end.

"We accomplished a lot this year, through a lot of hard work," said Belen's first-year coach, John Lerma. "But today, we just got beat by a good ballclub that has lots of size and speed and that executes well."

The Eagles struggled mightily on defense to contain Aztec's offense, much as they did in a 43-20 loss to the Tigers (12-0) on Sept. 5 in Belen. BHS was able to slow down the Aztec running game on a few plays, but for the most part, the Tiger offense moved the ball at will against the Eagle defense Saturday.

Aztec will travel to the Wool Bowl stadium in Roswell to face Goddard on Saturday at 1 p.m. for the 4A championship.

Tiger quarterback Brycson King completed 26 of 37 pass attempts for 367 yards Saturday and three touchdowns, while running back Mike Hathcock ran the ball 33 times for 146 yards and accounted for the other three Tiger scores.

Aztec scored first on a 29-yard pass over the middle from King to Derrick Williamson with less than seven minutes gone in the game.

Aided by a long run by sophomore quarterback Dylan Barba on the ensuing drive, the Eagles tied the game 7-7 on a one-yard run by Tyler East, then capitalized on an Orlando Castillo interception and some Aztec penalties to set up another East one-yard run.

That's about the time the Aztec offense really hit its stride. Hathcock scored on a six-yard run, and a questionable ruling gave the Tigers a two-point conversion when Trev Hammegren picked up a bad extra-point snap and ran toward the goal line pylon, though he appeared to have been knocked out of bounds.

The play gave the Tigers a 15-14 lead. Aztec took a 23-14 lead into the locker room when King completed a short pass to Jake Espinoza that turned into a 10-yard touchdown as the Eagles were slow to react to the play. King completed another pass to Espinoza for the conversion.

Belen was hoping to build some momentum in the third quarter, down 23-15, but Aztec kicked off and recovered the ball after a bad hop. Hathcock would go on to score twice on short runs in the third quarter to put the Tigers up 36-14.

The Eagles would get a 43-yard run from Danny Jaramillo to set up a six-yard score by Clovis Rivera to pull Belen to within 36-20, but that's as close as BHS would get.

The Eagles had a prolific running game this year, but will need a more regular passing game to beat 4A's toughest defenses. The Eagles completed one pass for minus-2 yards Saturday.

On defense, the Eagles had only a three-man rush against Aztec quarterback Brycson King, who shredded the Eagles with a variety of quick screens and downfield passes. The Tigers' spread formations allowed them to rush for 202 yards as well.

"We knew exactly what they were going to do — sit back in a Cover-3," said Hirsch. "But sometimes, you make a gameplan, and you have to stick with it."

Lerma said it was the Tigers' running back and wide receiver screens that really started to be the undoing of the Belen defense. Both coaches know that with Belen having so many sophomores getting regular time, it's going to be hard to beat the Eagles in the next two seasons.

Aztec shut down the Belen offense after that, and the Tiger offense kept firing away. The Tigers ended up outgaining the Eagles 569-191. Belen had 193 rushing yards, but its only pass completion was for minus-2 yards. Jaramillo led Belen with 79 rushing yards.

"We did our best,"said Belen senior Diego Gabaldon. "And we played like a family."

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