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PUSHING THROUGHT

Santa Fe High hangs on for win; Capital can’t catch up to Belen

By James Barron jbarron@sfnewmexican.com

Same old Santa Fe High …

There were plenty of moments Friday night when the Santa Fe High Demons could have retreated to past patterns of behavior.

Like when the opening kickoff set the opponent up in Demons’ territory for a quick score and an early lead.

Or when a promising Santa Fe High drive to go up two touchdowns disintegrates amid a flurry of penalties, bad snaps and even worse judgments.

Or when a plucky team just hangs around long enough to make Santa Fe High feel the heat and succumb to it.

None of it happened against an Albuquerque Manzano team that played its first game in two weeks after a COVID-19 outbreak. It almost did, but the Demons made enough plays and matched the Monarchs spunkiness with grit and determination. The result was a 35-27 win at Ivan Head Stadium for the Demons’ first big-school district win in 13 years, as well their first win over a big school in eight years that spanned 20 games.

Sure, the Demons (5-1 overall, 1-1 in 2/5-6A) relied on 267 rushing yards and three touchdowns from

senior running back Martell Mora, along with a rushing and a passing touchdown from quarterback Luc Jaramillo. But Santa Fe High head coach Andrew Martinez said there was more to the win than just that.

After a slumbering through a 28-12 loss last week to Albuquerque Eldorado to open district play, the verdict was still out on Santa Fe High.

“They’re different, and we tell them they’re different,” Martinez said. “We know it, but they have to know it. They have to go out there and have to be different on the field. And that was all they talked about this week. Last week’s not going to happen again.”

Beating Manzano (0-4, 0-1) was a must if the Demons wanted to harbor thoughts of making the Class 6A playoffs. It was a lot to ask when the program hadn’t beaten a big-school opponent since many of Martinez’s seniors were in elementary school. The pressure finally relented when Jared Melfi’s fourth-down pass from the Santa Fe High 37-yard line with 1:26 left in the game was deflected and bounced harmlessly away in the end zone.

“We just had to not stop fighting, even when things don’t go your way,” Mora said. “Last things, a lot of things didn’t go our way, but it was out of our control. You can only control what’s in your hands.”

Still, the Demons are a team learning how to win.

Against the Monarchs, that desire to make momentum-changing plays overrode the Demons’ sense to just play in the moment and do their jobs —which has been a season-long battle. The opening kickoff foretold the narrative of the night as kicker Molly Wissman was the last player standing between Khaliq Waites and a 79-yard touchdown. Instead, Wissman did just enough to trip up Waites and turn it into a 52-yard return.

In the second quarter, that desire led to big plays for the Monarchs, like Melfi’s 33-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Garcia at the 9:45 mark to tie the game at 7-7.

It was a gut punch because Santa Fe High dominated play up to that point behind the running of Mora, who broke the 100-yard mark by his third carry with an 88-yard touchdown run to open the scoring.

Manzano’s score came after the home team drove 57 yards to the Monarchs’ 15 on its second drive with a chance to go up 14-0, but that’s when the Demons’ demons sneaked up on them.

A false start drove them back five yards.

Then a bad snap pushed Santa Fe High to the Manzano 33. On fourth and 22, Jaramillo curiously ran out of bounds on a scramble for a loss of eight yards that gave the Monarchs the ball at their own 40.

Five plays later, the score was knotted up, and the knots in the pits of Demons fans’ stomachs began to reemerge.

“We just needed to calm down and do what we needed to do,” senior linebacker Cameron Romero said. “We were playing with too much energy. We just needed to calm down and play defense.”

The Demons kept fighting. They responded by driving 63 yards in 10 plays and Mora capped it with a 4-yard touchdown run. The score was 14-7 with 4:15 left before halftime.

It was how the rest of the game went.

When Manzano cut the margin to 14-13 early in the third quarter on Jaylin Thompson’s 9-yard touchdown run, Santa Fe High scored on its next two drives, thanks to the Jaramillo’s legs and right arm.

First, he hit Romero with a 19-yard touchdown pass for a 21-13 lead with 3:54 left in the third.

Then, after Mora intercepted a Melfi pass at the Santa Fe High 18, Jaramillo had matching 41-yard runs. The second one resulted in a touchdown and 28-13 lead with 2:41 remaining in the quarter.

Manzano was down 35-19 after Mora’s third touchdown run — this one a 37-yard scamper with 9:13 left in the game, but battled back. Thompson capped a 55-yard drive with a 3-yard touchdown run, and his 2-point reception made it 35-27 with 6:18 left.

Manzano then got an onside kick, but the Santa Fe High defense stiffened and forced a punt.

On the next Monarchs’ drive, Jaeden Opetaia picked off a Melfi pass and the Demons defense stopped the Monarchs’ last-ditch effort to tie the game and finally put the game away.

“We just have to go out there and just play,” Romero said. “It was time to step up.”

For one night, the phrase “Same old Demons” could take a rest.

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2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://enewmexican.com/article/281891596424303

Santa Fe New Mexican