Prep football: Horsemen gallop to huge impressive win

SANTA FE — If you wanted to nitpick, there were a couple of irrelevant missed extra points. But so what?

The St. Michael’s Horsemen looked every bit the part of Class 3A’s top-ranked prep football team on Saturday afternoon and authored close to a flawless performance.

“That’s the best 48 minutes we’ve put together all season long,” St. Mike’s coach Joey Fernandez said admiringly.

The Horsemen’s 47-8 blitz of visiting Eunice saw them manhandle Class 2A’s second-ranked Cardinals on both sides of the ball, particularly on defense where St. Michael’s held Eunice to minus-7 yards of offense in the opening two quarters and were a physical, suffocating unit at virtually every turn.

“They were hungry for this game,” said Fernandez. “They wanted a chance to prove themselves against a great team.”

Eunice (4-1) scored 88 points last week, and was averaging almost 60 points a game coming into this road trip up north.

“We knew going in, our team prides itself on defense,” said junior defensive end Ryan Hunt, who had multiple sacks of Eunice’s highly touted quarterback, Elijah Melancon. “We have so many great weapons on defense. We’re like, they’re not scoring, we’re gonna lock them down.”

St. Michael’s (5-0 and on a 25-game winning streak) scored on its second offensive play, with Isaiah Dominguez taking an inside handoff and breaking out wide for a 29-yard touchdown run. He added a 6-yard TD on the Horsemen’s second possession.

“We wanted to start from the jump and show them that it’s our game,” Dominguez said.

Eunice’s struggles were not entirely St. Mike’s doing. The Cardinals dropped several passes in the opening minutes and looked shaky.

“Our mindset was, they’re not gonna score,” Dominguez said. “I’m very proud of our defense.”

Still, the Cardinals regrouped, and were still down just 13-0 in the final minutes of the second half, and they had St. Michael’s in a dicey fourth-and-22 from the Eunice 38.

The Horsemen turned the tables, with quarterback Kamal Stith throwing a shot down the field for a touchdown to Victor Corral for a 20-0 lead.

“You kind of saw their head drop a little bit,” Fernandez said of Eunice.

And for good measure, Pete Johnson added a 2-yard scoring run with 72 seconds to go before halftime, and a 27-0 bulge for the Horsemen.

St. Mike’s scored on its first two drives of the third quarter — a 25-yard touchdown pass from Stith to Dominguez, and a short TD run — and led 47-0 before Eunice broke the shutout with a Melancon touchdown pass with four minutes to go.

But Melancon was under duress frequently Saturday.

“He’s a great quarterback, and we stressed our secondary, stressed getting pressure on the quarterback, and I feel like we did that perfectly,” Hunt said.

HIGHLAND 26, RIO GRANDE 6: At Milne Stadium, the Hornets (3-2, 1-1 in 1-5A) intercepted five passes as they downed the Ravens (0-5, 0-2).

Jose Tapia had one of those picks, and he also rushed for 140 yards and a touchdown for Highland. Andres Acosta scored a pair of TDs for the Hornets.

HOPE CHRISTIAN 54, ESTANCIA 34: At Wilson Stadium, the Huskies (4-1) received a pair of rushing touchdowns from senior running back Kingsley Ftritz as they outscored the Bears in a matinee matchup.

Quarterback RJ Montoya scored one touchdown on the ground, and also threw three touchdown passes for Hope Christian.

CHAPARRAL 35, ALBUQUERQUE ACADEMY 20: At the Academy, Lobos quarterback Israel Nieto threw two long touchdown passes to Aaron Eliserio in the second half to a break a 20-20 tie, and Chaparral (4-1) won its District 2-4A opener as it defeated the Chargers (2-3).

Nieto threw a 55-yard TD pass to Eliserio in the final minute of the third quarter, and that duo hooked up for a 40-yard score midway through the fourth quarter.

William Braun threw touchdown passes of 61 and 56 yards in the loss for Academy.

LEGACY ACADEMY: The Silverbacks’ scheduled game Saturday against McCurdy was forfeited by the Bobcats. Legacy Academy coach Joey Romero said the Bobcats called Legacy earlier in the week to say it didn’t have enough players to safely play the contest.

Eunice High School takes on St. Michael's: Photos