The Robertson Cardinals hosted the Raton Tigers in a District 2AAA football game on Friday night, October 12th and earned a 42-19 win over Raton.
The win was not as easy as the score made it sound for the Cardinals as Raton charged out of the gate in the first quarter to go toe-to-toe with the #3 ranked Cardinals, but Raton not only lost the game, they lost starting quarterback Aden Vanderwater early in the second quarter to a left arm injury. The injury came with Raton trailing only by one point, 14-13.
The game started very well for Raton. After winning the toss and deferring, the Raton defense quickly forced a punt. When the snap sailed over the Robertson punter, Raton’s Skylar Smith tackled the Cardinal punter and Raton took over at the Robertson 20. Then on a fourth and long, Aden Vanderwater took off around end and scored on a 20 yard run. Vanderwater kicked the extra point Raton had the early lead with 7:33 left in the first quarter.
It took Robertson only 1 play to tie it up as Antonio Padilla scampered for a 54 yard TD, the first time he touched the ball and after the PAT the game was tied at 7 all with 7:15 left in the first.
A dropped pass for Raton meant a three and out for the Raton offense and after an illegal block in the back penalty, Robertson took over deep in their own territory. Then a fumbled snap from center had Robertson at second and long when Raton’s Ismael Tafoya stepped in front of a pass attempt and intercepted on the Robertson 38. Vanderwater completed a 17 yard completion on third and 11 to keep the drive alive, then found Ismael Tafoya wide open for a 20 yard TD pass to put Raton back up with 2:27 left in the first quarter.
Robertson took over on their own 44 yard line and methodically moved down the field for the score with a nine play drive capped off by a Padilla 11 yard run. With the extra point, Robertson had their first lead of the game 14 – 13 with 9:52 left in the first half.
Vanderwater, a senior and one of the top players in AAA football, was hurt while playing defense on the Roberston drive and came out on the field for the next offensive series, but came out of the game in obvious pain after only one play.
Vanderwater is also the punter and placekicker for Raton and with him out, the Robertson defense pinned its ears back and partially blocked a Raton punt to take over at the Raton 26. It only took one play to score on a 26 yard run by Santiago Gonzales.
Thrown into the battle, Freshman QB Jesse Kelly performed well and was the victim of a dropped passed on his first offensive series and Raton had to punt. Robertson took over on their own 19 and proceeded to put together another time-consuming drive that ate up most of the remaining second quarter and a 12 play drive culminated in a score and a 28 – 13 halftime lead.
Raton quickly mounted a comeback challenge to begin the second half aided by back-to-back facemask flags against Robertson. Senior Ismael Tafoya made it 28 – 19 on a 34 yard TD run with less than two minutes gone in the third quarter.
That would be all the offensive scoring for Raton in the second half though, as Robertson would put up two more scores, a Gonzales 18 yard run in the third and a Padilla 28 yard run in the fourth.
The Raton defense played well most of the game, holding Robertson on a goal-line stand in the fourth quarter forcing them into an unsuccessful field goal attempt.
With the win Robertson went to 7 – 1 overall and 2- 0 in District 2AAA. Raton’s loss evened their season mark at 4 – 4 and kept Raton winless in district play at 0 – 2.
Raton will be on the road again on Thursday, October 18 as the Tigers travel to Santa Fe Indian School for a district game with a 7 pm kickoff. The game will be broadcast on FM 93.9 and streamed on Network1sports.com and is presented by the KRTN Tiger Roar Sports Club.
