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La Cueva football all but seals 2-6A crown
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LOS LUNAS — Senior safety Jhett Kinghorn was probably not the most likely candidate to be La Cueva’s most important football player in its most important game of the season.
But indeed, Kinghorn, with the District 2-6A championship essentially on the line, was a defensive and special teams menace for the fifth-ranked Bears, who all but secured the 2-6A title with a 54-35 road win over the eighth-ranked Tigers on Friday night.
La Cueva scored in all three phases.
“When you can score on special teams and defense, you’ve got things going your way,” La Cueva coach Brandon Back said.
In the decisive first half, Kinghorn recovered a blocked punt in the end zone for a touchdown, and he intercepted two passes, one for a 42-yard pick-6.
“We just take (special teams) super seriously, and it pays off,” Kinghorn said, adding, “I think it was just a big game, and I’m proud of how we did as a team.”
Kinghorn has become something of a Swiss army knife for La Cueva.
“He’s such a special player,” Back said. “... And that’s what we expect from him. He’s taken that role in (terms) of making plays in all aspects.”
The only way the Bears (5-2, 4-0) could not win the 2-6A regular-season title is if La Cueva loses two of its last three games. Those three opponents are Atrisco Heritage (1-5), Santa Fe (3-3) and Albuquerque High (4-3). And Los Lunas (4-3, 3-1) would have to win each of its final three.
La Cueva scored 3½ minutes into the game, on its first offensive snap Friday, a 62-yard TD pass from Monty Melendez to the ever-evolving sophomore Chris Lopez, who did most of the work post-catch, using his blazing speed to outrun a handful of Tiger defenders to the end zone.
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Near the end of the quarter, the Bears blocked a punt and Kinghorn covered it in the end zone for a 14-0 lead with 2:35 left in the first. (He returned a blocked punt for a TD two weeks earlier against West Mesa.)
Los Lunas responded with its best drive of the game, 80 yards, all on the ground, and senior QB Kaiden Reese capped it with a 1-yard tush push-type play.
But the Bears went 87 yards the other way on the ensuing possession, and it was Melendez to Lopez, this one from 6 yards, that extended the La Cueva lead to 21-7.
Reese was injured on Los Lunas’ next snap, and he was only on the field for a couple of plays the rest of the night. His replacement, junior Luke Cieremans, chucked an impressive 51-yard TD pass to Robert Pino for a 21-14 game midway through the second quarter, but Kinghorn’s pick-6 moments later killed the Los Lunas momentum.
And then La Cueva’s Vaughn Saunders added a 2-yard TD run late in the half; the seldom-used Saunders was needed because the Bears at that moment were thin in the backfield, including an injury to J-Dylan Hathaway. (Hathaway did return in the second half and added a late touchdown run.)
La Cueva’s lead was 35-14 at halftime, then 38-14 on a Chance Whitmire 24-yard field goal (he had two of them Friday, the other from 46), and then 44-14 with Melendez throwing short to Isaiah Goree who scampered 52 yards for a touchdown.
La Cueva took its foot off the gas a bit with that 30-point lead. The Tigers, in fact, pulled to within 44-29 with two touchdowns in the first 68 seconds of the fourth quarter. Hathaway’s score pretty much ended Los Lunas’ comeback hopes, as La Cueva took a 51-29 lead.
For Los Lunas, there was a larger issue looming over this loss, and that is the health of standout QB Reese. It appeared to be an injury to his lower left leg, and he was noticeably limping before finally leaving the game for good. It was not immediately known the extent of the injury. Los Lunas is back home next week against Santa Fe.
Los Lunas football takes on La Cueva: Photos
