EUNICE — One would be hard pressed to find two New Mexico towns as diametrically opposed as this tiny hitching post in the extreme southeast corner of the state and the one the St. Michael’s Horsemen left behind Friday morning.
This place, less than 10 minutes from the Texas border, is flush with pumpjacks and pickups that serve as the backbone of New Mexico’s oil and gas industry. The other is the heartbeat of the state’s policymakers, its towering forested mountains not at all resembling the unforgiving flatland of the oil-rich Permian Basin.
Politically, economically, geographically and culturally — they’re at opposite ends of the spectrum. Yet Friday night, these towns discovered they do have at least one thing in common: High school football.
St. Michael’s entered as the undefeated and top-ranked defending state champion in Class 3A while unbeaten Eunice was No. 2 in the lower-tier 2A.
In the end it was all Horsemen.
Soren Annon and Cole Sandoval each surpassed 100 yards on the ground, receiver Brayden Hollis caught five passes and scored twice, and defensive end Ryan Hunt proved that, as the saying goes, “ball don’t lie,†in a 40-8 rout that was never all that close.
The only time Eunice’s defense held the St. Michael’s offense out of the end zone came on the Horsemen’s final drive when they burned more than seven minutes off the clock to ice away what had been a lopsided affair.
“I think we did send a message, yeah,†Hollis said. “We can go anywhere, play anyone and do what we need to do.â€
Hollis had a touchdown catch in each half. The first of those opened a 12-0 lead on a night in which the Horsemen didn’t have their kicker, Elijah Gutierrez. He is a midfielder on the boys soccer team and he was needed for that sport’s game Friday afternoon in ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe.
St. Michael’s made the point-after attempts a bit of a mess, but pretty much everything else went according to plan against one of the top small-school teams in the state. The Cardinals (4-1) gave up 452 yards to the Horsemen offense. Of those, 200 came through the air, courtesy of quarterbacks Reed Bass and Kamal Stith.
Calling his team’s most complete game of the season, St. Michael’s coach Joey Fernandez told his players he would have preferred scoring 50 points and holding Eunice off the scoreboard.
“But you know, we did a lot of good things tonight,†he said. “The kids came down here ready to play. As soon as we got off the bus and got onto the field, I could see it in their faces. They were ready.â€
Up 20-8 in the final minute of the first half, the Horsemen kicked off after Isaiah Dominguez capped a 55-yard scoring drive with an 8-yard touchdown run. Eunice fumbled the kick, allowing the Horsemen to recover the ball inside the Cardinals’ 10 with 55 seconds left.
After a brief huddle, the officials ruled there had been an inadvertent whistle and the kick had to be replayed. It was the second such “inadvertent whistle†of the half, both of which wiped out important plays only to run them again.
Instead of opting to run the clock out and head into the halftime locker room down 12 points, Eunice ran two plays attempting to get something going.
That’s when Cardinals quarterback Elijah Melancon passed the ball to Dyson Lord on the sideline. Lord was immediately hit and lost the ball.
Hunt scooped it up and ran it in for an 8-yard touchdown with 16 seconds left.
“I’ve never seen anything like that, two inadvertent whistle calls in one half,†Fernandez. “I like the way it turned out, though.â€
Melancon had a rough night, completing just 14 of 27 passes for 159 yards. He did, however, toss a 45-yard touchdown in the second quarter — just the second time in five games an opponent has found the end zone against the Horsemen.
The Horsemen have outscored teams 209-18 this season.
NOTESTravelin’ men: The six-plus hours it took to get from ·è¿ÍÖ±²¥ Fe to Eunice made for a long day for the Horsemen. It gets a little easier next week with a road trip to former district rival Raton, which dropped from 3A to 2A this year.
Streaking: St. Michael’s extended its winning streak to 12 games dating to last season. The Horsemen are 36-8 since the start of the 2021 season.
Hit stick: One of the better defensive plays of the game came in the second half when the outcome was already decided. With Eunice driving and looking for an offensive spark, the Cardinals faced a third-and-7 from the St. Michael’s 33 early in the fourth quarter.
Melancon threw a pass over the middle that appeared to be caught for a first down, but Horsemen defensive backs Ray Griego Jr. and Brandon Meyer converged for a huge hit on Cardinals receiver Luis Gomez. The impact knocked the ball loose and eventually led to a turnover on downs.