It was the second week in a row that the 2021 Raton Tiger Football team had a long road game to play. But the bus ride back home was short as the Tigers made short work of the Jal Panthers in a 35-7 win on Friday night.
Raton was actually the home team in the game played at the neutral site of Tucumcari Rattler Stadium and both the Tigers offense and defense felt at home. While the offense rolled by scoring 35 for the second consecutive week, the defense fell just short of pitching a second consecutive shut-out, as a half-back option pass with under a minute to go broke the string of scoreless quarters.
A quick, but heavy shower rolled over the stadium just prior to the game, but no lightning was seen, so after winning the toss, the Tigers elected to receive. The footing was good on the field, despite the pre-game shower, but the Tiger offense got bogged down by multiple holding calls throughout the night, and if it were not for the yellow laundry on the field, the Tigers could’ve scored more. As it was, they overcame one hold on the first series and on third and 12, QB Dylan Quartieri found Matthew Quartieri with an 18 yard TD pass. The 15 play drive used up almost half of the first quarter and after the Cole Hopper PAT, Raton lead 7-0 with 6:07 left in the first.
The Raton Defense played well all night against Jal’s running game, lead by QB Alexavier Carreon. He had amassed 395 yards on the ground against Texico in the Panthers first game, but the junior could never get rolling against the Raton D led by the front three of Abe Alvarado, Henry Coronado and Devon Ramirez.
The Panthers were held to a three and out on their first drive. Raton then had a 14 play drive stall and an unsuccessful 47 yard field goal attempt, and a second scoring TD toss to Mathew Quartieri of 23 yards, before the Panthers were able to get their first first down, midway thru the second quarter.
Running back Cayden Walton was questionable for the whole week, having hurt his ankle during the previous week’s win against Eunice. The junior came out at game time, though and performed up to his usual high level. Raton’s offensive line opened the holes and the junior slashed, darted, stiff-armed and spun his way for chunks of yardage including TD scampers of 54 and 20 yards.
The clock went to a continuous run when freshman Cannon Walton got behind the defense and hauled in a 30 yard TD from Quartieri and with the extra point, the 35 point margin set the clock into continual motion with 7:35 left in the fourth.
The Raton defense had great linebacking play from Anderson Weese, Mathew Quartieri and W.D. Hyer with Chance Middlebrook contributing with several open field tackles from his Free Safety position that prevented big plays.
Raton moves to 2 – 0 with the win over the #1 Ranked team in 2A in NM.
Raton will have its home-opener on Friday, September 3 as the Trinidad Miners travel the Pass in the Annual Battle for the Coal Bucket. Kick-off at 7 pm with coverage on KRTN FM 93.9 and on KRTN’s Facebook.
| Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Q4 | Final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jal | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 7 |
| Raton | 7 | 14 | 7 | 7 | 35 |
