By Marty Mayfield
KRTN Multi-Media
It was a cool, windy, Thursday evening, October 18th as the Santa Fe Indian School Braves hosted for a rare Thursday night game for Raton high school football. Not only was the day of week unusual, but it was also the first-ever District meeting between the two schools. With both teams looking for their first 2AAA win, the Raton Tigers did everything right, and steadily pulled away to a 42 – 0 victory.
The reason for the Thursday evening game is to get more student participation at SFIS as many of the students are boarding at the school and go home on Friday. A Thursday evening game gives the students an activity to participate in while in school.
The game opened with a touchback on the kickoff to give SFI the ball on the 20. A fumble set the Braves back to the 14 to start their first series. They finish with a three and out however a running into the kicker penalty, a five-yard penalty, gives the Braves another chance and then another chance as Raton fumbles on the punt return at the Braves 36. The Raton defense, stingy all evening, stopped SFIS on a three and out giving Raton the ball on the 40.
The Raton offense looked a bit different as the injured Aden Vanderwater was not able to play and the quarterback duties fell to 8thgrader Cayden Walton. Walton kept the drive alive with two seperate fourth down runs of five-yard, but a block in the back penalty, moved the ball back to the 26. Miscues and penalties take the ball back to the 35 for a 3rdand 30. Unfazed, Freshman QB Jesse Kelly found Isaiah Samora for the score and Garrett Kelly ties the ribbon by splitting the uprights to make it a 7-0 game with 2:20 left in the first.
After the Raton kickoff, Raton forces Santa Fe on another three and out and the punt gives Raton the ball on the 48. On the very next play, quarterback Jesse Kelly passes to Walton and he goes the distance to pay dirt and Garrett Kelly once again split the uprights for a 14-0 game.
On the kickoff Brave Francisco Pino makes a 38-yard return to begin the drive at the 50. A 10-yard run then on the next play its wasted when Raton recovers another Brave fumble. With Raton on offense, Richie Acevedo takes the ball inside the red zone to the seven. Ismael Tafoya then scrambles the distance for six points to end the first quarter. Garrett Kelly adds the point and it’s 21-0 to begin the second quarter.
Raton commits a face mask penalty on the kickoff to add 15 yards and give SFIS good field position to the 43-yard line. The Braves however, can only move backwards and go three and out and Raton takes the punt at the 35 on a fair catch.
Raton moves the ball on the ground with Walton and Acevedo but on a fourth and long, goes to the air to Matthew Quartieri to keep the drive alive. Acevedo takes the ball inside the red zone once again. Walton goes 11 yards and puts the ball on the one, and then finishes the drive with the QB keeper and steps across the goal line for six. Kelly’s PAT is good and it’s a 28-0 game with 4:13 left in the second quarter.
Santa Fe begins their drive at the 33. The Braves go three and out again giving Raton the ball at the Braves 40. Raton giving Jesse Kelly and Walton turns at QB move the ball inside the red zone to the 11. Three plays later Raton’s Walton on another keeper finds pay dirt for the score. Kelly splits the uprights for 35-0 with 8-seconds on the first half clock.
With a continuos clock running, Raton takes the second half kickoff at the 40 and then three plays later on a Kelly to Ismael Tafoya pass, goes 40 yards for six with Garrett Kelly making his sixth straight extra point to make it 42-0.
The Kickoff goes to Terrell Toledo who gets a 30-yard return giving Santa Fe good field position on the 40. Santa Fe finally puts a drive together that goes more than three plays, but after nine plays, the Braves are forced to punt and return the ball to Raton.
Raton goes to the air to move the ball with QB Jesse Kelly making passes for short yardages ending the third quarter with the running clock. Raton gets the ball down inside the 30 but fumbles with the Braves making the recovery.
Santa Fe takes the ball from the 35. Two plays later Richie Acevedo picks off a Shaun Riley pass at the 45-yard line. Raton however turns the ball over on downs at the 48.
Santa Fe goes three plays and fumbles the ball at the 49 where Raton recovers. Two plays later Raton ends the game as the running clock runs out of time to give Raton a 42-0 win.
Raton upped their record to 5-4 with their first District win while SFIS fell to 3-6, and 0-3.
Raton has a bye week next week and then will finish the regular season at home on November 2 with Santa Fe St. Mikes coming into the Jungle. The game will kickoff at 7 pm and will be broadcast on KRTN FM 93.9 and streamed on Network1sports. com.
