Eagles fly past Patriots; errors costly for Tigers

The Belen Eagles played one of their most complete games of the season in a dominating victory over Miyamura, while uncharacteristic mistakes cost Los Lunas in a setback to La Cueva. Valencia was idle.

Eagles roll over Patriots

A power outage postponed the regularly scheduled District 1-5A match up on Sept. 26 between Belen (3-4, 2-2) and Miyamura (3-4, 2-2) on the BHS campus. However, there was no shortage of electricity for the Eagles during the makeup game last Friday, with BHS scoring 24 points in the first quarter on their way to a 52-12 victory over the Patriots.

“Very, very pleased,” was the reaction of Kevin Peña, Belen head coach. He gave much of the credit to the defense, which registered interceptions by Mikey Pena and Noah Gonzalez, and forced several fumbles.

“Our defense had a great game,” Peña said.

It was the offense that got the hometown crowd roaring early. On the Eagles’ second play from scrimmage, Chalito Cano found Logan Gonzalez, who made a couple of moves to reach the end zone and start the scoring.

“It kind of just rolled from there. We kept moving,” Peña noted, while Ethan Haldeman, a BHS junior, said, “We were just clicking on all cylinders.”

Gonzalez added three touchdowns rushing, while Cano scampered in twice for scores. Belen led 31-6 at the half, and Miyumura never mounted a rally.

The highlight of the second half was a 36-yard TD pass from Cano to Haldeman, who plays tight end and defensive end. Haldeman out-jumped a defender to make the catch, racing in for the score.

“I’ve never been more excited in my life,” said Haldeman about his first touchdown catch at any level. “I didn’t know I could jump that high, to be honest. It really opened my eyes to show that I can do it. I might have closed my eyes when I caught it.”

Bad weather during the week leading up to the game may have actually been a positive for the Eagles, who had an altered practice schedule because of lightning.

“The guys had a little bit of fresh legs,” said Peña. “I learned when our kids are fresh and we’ve got everybody, we’re a good team.”

BHS meets district foe Highland (5-2, 3-1) at 7 p.m. Friday at Eagles Stadium.

La Cueva frustrates Los Lunas

When you play against one of the giants of 6A football, like La Cueva, a near-perfect performance may be needed. While there were several positive areas last Friday, a number of mistakes doomed the Tigers (4-3, 3-1) in a 54-35 setback in Los Lunas to the Bears (5-2, 4-0).

“Very disappointing,” is the way LLHS head coach Greg Henington put it. “We could have performed a lot better as a program.”

Part of the disappointment came from the way Los Lunas started in the battle for the top spot in District 2-6A. On La Cueva’s first play from scrimmage, the Bears completed a 62-yard scoring strike.

When Los Lunas was forced to punt deep in the Tigers own territory, the ball hit an LLHS blocker and was recovered in the end zone by La Cueva.

Playing from behind, Los Lunas showed grit on a short TD run by Kaiden Reese, and a nifty catch and run for a score by Robert Pino on a 51-yard pass by reserve quarterback Luke Cieremans.

“That was beautiful,” said Henington, of the pass play that pulled LLHS to within 21-14. “It was a beautiful ball. It was a little rub route concept. They executed it perfectly.”

Henington complemented Cieremans, who saw extensive playing-time after Reese needed attention for a scrape after he tumbled on the adjacent track and later when spraining an ankle. The coach believes Reese will be “fine” moving forward.

With the game still in doubt, La Cueva scored on an interception return to build the lead to 35-14 at the half and extended it to 44-14 after three quarters. Los Lunas scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to make the final score respectable.

Henington saw some positives to build on, but the mistakes were costly.

“That’s a good football team,” Henington said of La Cueva. “You’ve got to be on point with them and we just didn’t do it. The only thing you can do now is correct some mistakes and get ready for the next game.”

That next game is 7 p.m., Friday against Santa Fe (4-3, 2-2) at Willie Chavez Field in Los Lunas.

Valencia prepares for Manzano

After a bye-week, Valencia (3-4, 1-2) goes back on the road, but this time it will be a short trip. In District 2-4A, the Jaguars face Manzano (4-3, 1-2) at 11a.m., Saturday, at Wilson Stadium.