Demons walloped 51-0 by Los Lunas; game called early

Oct. 15—"Potential is lost reality unless it's shown on the field."

That was the phrase Santa Fe High head football coach Andrew Martinez used Friday night to describe the crossroads at which the Demons find themselves.

A season filled with injuries and underwhelming performances, Friday night was Santa Fe High's nadir of the 2022 season — so far.

The Los Lunas Tigers, the District 5-6A leaders, were cooly efficient, but received assistance from a Demons offense that committed three turnovers and a defense that provided only minimal resistance in a 51-0 Tigers win at Ivan Head Stadium.

At 1-7 overall and 0-2 in the district, Santa Fe High had perhaps its worst effort of the season.

The offense produced just 32 yards, and a minus 25 yard effort in the run game.

The defense surrendered 269 yards to the Tigers (5-4, 3-0), and only stopped them twice. Martinez didn't sugarcoat what he glumly witnessed on the sidelines for almost two hours.

"It's mental toughness," Martinez said. "We're just not there. We can practice all we want with it, but we just got to come out and play. It has to be us, and it has to happen on a Friday night or a Thursday night or a Saturday afternoon. Whatever it is. It has to translate to the field."

The way the Demons played irked

the sixth-year head coach so much, he held a "Come to Jesus" meeting with the varsity not more than 15 minutes after Los Lunas running back Nicholas Torres scored on a 13-yard touchdown run.

That score came with less than

11 minutes left in the game due to the 50-point mercy rule.

Demons senior quarterback Andrew Allen said it is hard to compete when it appears some teammates have checked out on a season that has two games left.

"People just need to find their heart," Allen said. "I know we got plenty of experienced guys, but there comes a point where you have to find your heart and play with some pride."

Perhaps nothing summed up the state of the Demons better than their first three offensive plays.

First came a fumble on the handoff exchange from Allen to Ehthyn Tapia that Los Lunas defensive end Thomas Ordonez scooped up and rumbled

6 yards for a touchdown. That gave

Los Lunas a 14-0 lead at 8:03 of the opening quarter.

The next two offensive plays resulted in minus 10 yards and included a bad snap by center Charly Skelton to Allen, who chased down the ball for loss of

7 yards.

That drive led to the only punt on Santa Fe High's first four drives.

The next two produced turnovers. First, Marco Perez picked off an Allen pass to the sideline and returned it

33 yards for a score and a 24-0 lead in the opening quarter. Then, Jordan Baker, a junior who was just regained his academic eligibility, fumbled an Allen pitch that Ordonez recovered at the Santa Fe High 30.

One penalty and two plays later,

Los Lunas quarterback Paul Cieremans hit Ethan Baca for a 6-yard touchdown and a 31-0 lead at the 9:11 mark of the second quarter.

The pick-six return was the fourth in two games committed by Allen, but Martinez said the offense's inability to do anything on first and second downs put his quarterback in an almost unwinnable situation. Allen was 3-for-8 for

21 yards and two interceptions.

"We didn't even give Andrew a chance to be successful," Martinez said. "That poor kid, all he does is want to win and plays with heart. We didn't even help him. Charly is normally really solid there, but I don't know what happened tonight. He's never shown that all year. He just had a really bad night snapping the ball."

Mora, who had 82 yards last week against Clovis, carried the ball twice for minus 1 yards and was one the sidelines for much of the game.

Martinez declined to discuss the situation with the junior running back.

But Martinez said his frustration is with the effort of a few players, but they are key ones to the Demons' success.

"We got guys who are playing really damn hard," Martinez said. "Then we got guys that I'm not too sure about."

Martinez did not find any solace in the defense's goal-line stand in the third quarter that prevented the mercy rule from happening then.

What matters, Martinez said, is finding players who want to be on the field and work hard, if not collectively. It could mean a roster that once boasted almost 100 players could be significantly shaved for next week's game against Albuquerque High.

"Some guys need to realize if they really want to be here," Allen said.

The product the Demons are producing on the field merely confirms that.