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Prep football: Hope dominates Legacy, despite the misleading 12-6 final
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RIO RANCHO – It was a dominant performance by the Hope Christian Huskies — inasmuch as it is possible that a game that finishes 12-6 can be dominated by one team.
But, save for a superbly designed, perfectly executed trick play that led to Legacy Academy’s only touchdown, Hope was, in fact, in control Saturday afternoon as the Huskies (2-0) held off the Silverbacks (1-1) in a game at Rio Rancho High School.
Quarterback RJ Montoya’s 2-yard touchdown run with 5:24 remaining broke a 6-6 tie.
“We stayed the course,” Hope coach Fernando Salinas said. “We just need to be a little more relentless to finish drives, have that urgency to get it done.”
The first half was scoreless, although that was baffling. Hope Christian ran 32 plays in the first half to Legacy’s seven, and outgained the Silverbacks 120-11, and the Huskies had Legacy Academy’s defense on the field on a hot day for the large majority of the opening two quarters.
Consider the game’s first drive, for example, when Hope Christian ran 16 plays and consumed 9 minutes and 39 seconds of clock, but stalled at the Legacy 16-yard line.
But Hope clearly had laid some of the groundwork, going up against what had to be a somewhat gassed Legacy defense in the second half.
The game’s first points didn’t arrive until the final 23.2 seconds of the third quarter.
The Huskies marched 71 yards on 12 plays, 11 of them running plays, and finally put up some points when running back Noah Carter scored from the 2. Hope, without a kicker, went for 2 and failed.
“We were just wearing them down,” Salinas said.
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With eight minutes to go, Legacy Academy tied the game. Jay Lee took a pitch, and then chucked a 64-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Christian Perez along the near sideline. Hope’s defense bit on Lee, leaving Perez completely alone down the field.
But Hope blocked the PAT.
The Huskies scored quickly to regain the lead. The drive began with a 37-yard run from Montoya, and ended with Montoya scoring on a 2-yard run with 5:24 remaining.
“We finally got them,” Salinas said.
Added Montoya: “We 100 saw that we were tiring them out. We saw new faces getting subbed in, and we just knew we had it.”
Hope is at Albuquerque Academy on Friday night in the Chargers’ annual night home game.
ALBUQUERQUE HIGH 34, VALLEY 7: At Milne Stadium, senior running back Alberto Landeros took a beating Saturday afternoon, having to be helped off the field no fewer than three times.
But he was awfully good when he was in the game, rushing for 152 yards and a touchdown, and he had about 90 yards of other carries, including a long touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage, which was erased by penalty.
“For these first two weeks, for having a lot of young guys in spots, a lot of new guys in spots, we can be happy being 2-0,” Bulldogs Desmond Anaya said.
Landeros carried it 17 times, officially, but there were a couple of other long runs — including a 65-yard TD scamper on the game’s first play — that got wiped out by penalty.
But AHS established the run early, to great success.
“We knew Valley was weak on the run game, and that’s what we studied this week,” said Landeros. “When we came out with the play and I had that TD, from there we knew it was gonna be physical.”
Quarterback Andre Martin rushed for one score and threw for two other touchdowns.
On the opening drive, Kylon Clark scored on an 8-yard run. But Valley (0-2) scored on its first drive, too, and Joshua Sanchez capped an 80-yard drive with a 1-yard run. Quarterback Jose Jaramillo hit a 36-yard pass to the 1 on the play prior to the score.
Martin threw a 24-yard slip screen TD pass to Juan Carlos Landeros — Alberto’s cousin — for a 14-7 lead two minutes into the second quarter, a score set up by outstanding field position.
Martin hit paydirt from the 1 with 18 seconds to go before halftime, which ended with AHS having a 21-7 lead.
“Every time we take the field, we want to establish a few specific things. And running the ball and being physical are two of those things,” Anaya said.
Alberto Landeros scored from the Valley 14 midway through the third quarter.
Martin and Gabriel Fernandez hooked up on a marvelous hitch-and-go that resulted in a 32-yard touchdown with 1:41 to go in the third.
Now AHS welcomes another 2-0 team, Alamogordo, next Friday, and the Bulldogs are feeling this strong start.
“We’re looking good, we’re way better than last year,” Alberto Landeros said.
ALBUQUERQUE ACADEMY 51, DEL NORTE 0: In the early game Saturday at Milne, Zach Wagnorn rushed for a pair of touchdowns, and Finn Thompson scored three times as the Chargers won for the second straight week.
Thompson caught a pair of TD passes, and he also returned an interception for a touchdown. Gage Conway had one receiving score, passed for a touchdown, and also added a field goal.
LOVINGTON 49, PORTALES 24: In Lovington, the Wildcats finished off a strong performance in a game that began Friday night but was postponed by weather.
The game between these longtime rivals resumed at 2 p.m. Saturday. The teams only played about nine minutes on Friday.
