Yodice: A crazy late-night ending in Carlsbad

Hey, did you hear the one about the high school football team that scored two touchdowns in the final ONE second of a game to come from 14 points behind and win?

You are very nearly reading that story today.

Let me set the scene for what proved to be one of the oddest things to happen on a football field in New Mexico so far this season.

Centennial is leading Carlsbad, 21-7, in the final seconds on Friday night. It’s very late. After 11:30. Lightning delays have stretched this game out for a couple of extra hours.

The Cavemen score a touchdown with one second to go, kick the PAT, and trail the Hawks 21-14. A 15-yard penalty is called on Centennial, so the subsequent onside kick occurs from the Centennial half of the field, at the 45-yard line.

But, as mentioned, there is only one second on the clock. And here, boys and girls, is where this story and this game goes completely off the rails.

Carlsbad lines up for the onside kick. Centennial has deployed its players in anticipation of this, obviously.

The Cavemen kicker hits a squibber to his right. The ball bounces a couple of times, and then appears to deflect off the leg of one of the Centennial up men, and squirts up into the air.

A member of Carlsbad on the far outside races right onto the ball, catches it, and runs the ball 30 yards for … a touchdown?

This is what the officiating crew on site ruled.

A member of the kick team cannot advance the ball any further than the spot at which he caught it and/or recovered it. And the clock would have gone to double zero as soon as he touched it in play.

However, this play was ruled a touchdown, and Carlsbad, shockingly, was a 2-point conversion away from winning this game with 15 points in the final ONE second.

The Cavemen ran the ball straight ahead on the 2-point try, and it was THIS close. The Cavemen running back was ruled about the length of a football short of the goal line.

Centennial 21, Carlsbad 20.

Had that 2-point play succeeded, we would today be talking about one of the most controversial victories this season by any team in the country.

BLACK AND BLUE: There were two injuries of note on Friday night, with varying degree of consequences for the two teams involved.

At Cleveland on Friday night, sophomore Evan Nañez took a helmet to the knee in the first half of the Storm’s contest against El Paso Pebble Hills, and he left the game. He did not return.

Cleveland coach Robert Garza on Saturday he did not know the extent of the Nañez injury, merely that he was going to be checked out early this coming week and it was unknown how much time, if any, Nañez could miss. The Storm has reached its bye week, and begins District 1-6A action week after next with a road trip at Farmington.

But an extended absence of Nañez could have repercussions for the Storm. Nañez has been one of the state’s best offensive players in the first half of the season, contributing big plays in both the pass game and the run game. If he misses any length of time, or, worst-case scenario, does not return this year, that changes things for Cleveland.

The other injury of note occurred at Ivan Head Stadium in Santa Fe, where Gad Harris of Sandia, a sophomore, suffered a lower leg fracture on the second play of the game.

Harris is sure to miss the rest of the 2025 prep football season for the 1-4 Matadors.

There was one other angle here: Harris is one of the most valuable players on the Sandia basketball team. No way to know if he will miss any time in the gym for the Matadors, who are going to be a serious championship contender in the 2025-26 season.

TEAM OF THE WEEK: I am beginning a new feature this week, one we’ll be offering each week for the remainder of the regular season.

We’re going to give this honor in Week 5 to the Española Valley Sundevils.

The Sundevils, who had a change of head coaches in the offseason coming off their unexpected Class 4A state semifinal appearance last November, were 2-2 coming into their Friday night home game against Moriarty.

Española Valley, a team not even ranked by the state’s 4A coaches, beat No. 5 Moriarty 24-18, one of the notable upsets of the week.