Bernalillo bounces Chaparral, advances to 4A semifinals

BERNALILLO — For many schools, reaching the high school state football semifinals is a nice achievement but not necessarily noteworthy.

Then there is Bernalillo, which blew out visiting Chaparral 37-6 on Friday in the 4A quarterfinals to give the fourth-seeded Spartans the first semifinal appearance in school history.

Bernalillo (10-1) will face No. 1 Bloomfield.

“Ten years ago, I was 0 and 10 when I took over this program,” said Bernalillo coach John Cobos. “So to see where we’re at right now, and the opportunity to be in the final four, it’s bittersweet, but that’s not what we want. We have bigger goals, and we’re very blessed to be here.”

Indeed, the goals are quite a bit bigger, said quarterback Uriel Castro, who threw for 199 yards and four touchdowns, including the opening score to his younger brother, Ulisses Castro.

“You know what the goal is, that’s the blue trophy,” Uriel Castro said. “We didn’t want to make history just for our school. We want to make history for ourselves. The first team from Bernalillo to win the blue trophy.”

The Spartans took a big step in that direction with the win over the 12th-seeded Lobos (4-8), who were coming off a 10-0 win over Portales in the playoffs’ opening round.

But Bernalillo quickly put an end to any ideas of a second straight Chaparral shutout as the Spartans scored on their first possession. Four runs by back Nate Encinias put Bernalillo on the 34, where the Castro brothers combined on a touchdown toss and catch following a textbook play-action fake to Encinias.

“It was amazing,” Cobos said of the play. “I think we just set it up perfect, just what we were doing. We saw the safeties were coming up and we thought maybe we’d save it for the second half, but it was just an opportunistic time to do it.”

Bernalillo scored on its next three possessions of the first half to lead 28-0 at the break. The Lobos had two significant drives in the second quarter, but Uriel Castro thwarted one with an interception, and Encinias did the same to the other at the end of the half.

It was that type of teamwork that drives the team, said Encinias, who had 129 yards rushing.

“Be disciplined. That was a big motto, be disciplined,” he said. “Work together, trust each other and just be a team united. We preach one team, one unit, one family, and it’s a model here, like we live by it. We’re brothers.”

Now this band of brothers is marching to a new beat, using an offseason of work that started the Monday following a playoff loss last season.

“We all just had the drive because it left a sour taste in our mouth,” Encinias said. “No, we didn’t want to ever feel like that again. So that night we made a decision to lock in and be ready come this time next year and get to this point. Yeah, it’s tough, but it’s easier when you got your brothers pushing you and all around you, they make you way better.”