Road ends in football quarterfinals for LLHS, BHS

Both Belen and Los Lunas suffered painful losses Friday in the quarterfinals of the state football playoffs; however, the angst came in very different forms.

Breaks help Bulldawgs oust Tigers

It was a toe-to-toe 6A showdown between No. 8 Los Lunas (8-4) and top-seeded Las Cruces, with the Bulldawgs (11-0) pulling away on their home field for a 49-29 victory.

Don’t be misled by the final score. The outcome wasn’t truly decided until well into the fourth quarter, when some “tough breaks” shut the door on a Los Lunas upset bid.

Out of the gate, the Tigers scored on the game’s first possession, a short run by Martin Cordova less than two minutes into the contest.

“We ran the ball so incredibly hard,” said Greg Henington, LLHS head coach, praising Cordova, Jagger Casillas and the offensive line. “They ran the ball down the No. 1 seed’s throat.”

The Las Cruces offense was also having success, building a 21-7 lead on the strength of a versatile attack. Following a second Cordova rushing touchdown made it 21-14, the Tigers had a chance to tie the game.

With just seconds left in the half, and out of timeouts, quarterback Luke Cieremans tried to sneak in from the one footline but was stopped.

No doubt, momentum for Los Lunas was impacted, but not nearly as much as what happened in the third quarter.

With the score 28-21, Angel Aguilar intercepted a Las Cruces pass and returned it 90 yards for a touchdown, seemingly turning the tide. However, a penalty was called for roughing the passer on a play that Henington called “a legitimate bang-bang play. I think it should not have been called.”

After the pick-six was wiped out, Las Cruces scored a short time later. On the ensuing kickoff, the Tigers’ return man thought the ball was going into the end zone, but it spun back and was recovered by the Bulldawgs at the one-yard line.

That set up another score on the first play of the fourth quarter, putting Las Cruces in front 42-21.

“You’re looking at a 20-point swing, between what we lost and what they gained,” Henington said of the sequence that started with the negated interception. “That pick-six being called back was definitely the dagger,” in the Las Cruces 20-point victory.

LLHS fans weren’t happy either later in the fourth quarter when the Bulldawgs quarterback appeared to fumble while throwing the ball, but instead it was ruled an incomplete pass.

That ended the Los Lunas season.

“We felt we were going to pull it off all week,” Henington said of the preparation leading up to the game.

The coach added that despite the loss, the Tigers made a statement.

“The way they handled things the whole season, they deserved another game,” he said. “They play with so much heart and grit that the whole community can be proud of them.”

Coyotes howl against visiting Eagles

A stellar season ended Friday night in Roswell for Belen, with the Eagles (7-5) falling 51-0 to the second-seeded team in 5A.

“They pretty much outmatched us in every aspect of the game,” said Kevin Peña, Belen coach, about the talent of the Coyotes (8-3). “I expected them to be big and strong; I didn’t realize how fast they were.”

BHS, shutout for the first time this season, had won five games in a row. The Eagles were hampered offensively when quarterback Chalito Cano was knocked out of the game in the first half with what Peña described as a sprained knee.

“We couldn’t get anything going offensively. Defensively they were really fast.,” Peña said of the Roswell pursuit, which forced Cano and his replacement Logan Gonzalez into hurried throws. “Their front four, they just got through.”

The large roster of about 80 players on the Roswell sideline impressed Peña, but the coach was also inspired by his own team, which had only eight seniors.

“They’re just hardnosed,” Peña said. “I wouldn’t trade them for any other team.”

After the game, Peña told the players, “I love you all and I will be here for every one of you for the rest of your lives.”