The Raton Tiger football team hosted the Santa Fe Indian School Braves on Saturday afternoon, September 30 in the Jungle and the Tigers beat the rain and the lightning and the Braves 40 – 7.
With the win, Raton improved to 4-3 on the season, but more importantly, earned the win in District 2AAA.
SFIS won the toss but was held to a three-and-out by the Raton defense, and it didn’t take long for lightning to strike on the field, in the form of an 85-yard punt return for #2 Mathew Munoz. The extra point by WD Hyer was good and Raton led 7 – 0 after just more than two minutes had run off the clock.
Two recurring themes for Raton were three-and outs pitched by the Raton Defense and good punt returns by Wyatt Berry. Raton started a seven-play drive at the Braves 47, but after an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty inside the five-yard line of SFIS and a delay penalty, moved Raton back to the 25, Cannon Walton broke through the right side between good blocking by Isaac Garcia and Joseph Arguello and broke it to the outside for the second score at 6:06 left in the first quarter. The PAT was no good so Raton was up 13-0.
The Braves were frustrated with the swarming Raton defense and another 3 and out followed by a Berry punt return to give Raton a first down at the Braves 33. It only took them 2 plays, an 18-yard pass to Berry and then Jacob Mattorano found a wide-open WD Hyer for the 15-yard scoring strike. Hyer notched all 7 points for the Tigers on that score followed by the PAT for a 20 – 0 lead with 2:52 still left in the first.
Another three and out for the Raton defense and then Jacob Mattorano blocked a Braves punt and Azden Romero recovered for the Tigers. It took the Tigers only 3 plays to add to the lead with Joseph Saenz following the blocks of Isaiah Garcia and Carson Chatterley to get it to the 2-yard line and then Mattorano rolled to his right to find Wyatt Berry for the score and after the Hyer PAT it was 27-0 with :04 left in the first period.
The second quarter began the same way the first ended, with a three and out for Braves offense and then it only took the Raton offense two plays to score as Berry took a jet sweep to the left and Carson Chatterley sprung him with a crushing downfield block for a 69 yard rushing TD and a 34 -0 lead after the PAT.
SFIS got their first first down by penalty and kept it for 11 plays before the Raton defense stiffened and gave the ball back to the Raton offense. Raton fumbled at midfield, but the defense had yet another stand and a deflected pass by David Munoz gave it back to the Raton offense and as the first half wound down, Raton began substituting. Sophomore Azden Romero stepped in at QB and handed it off to another sophomore Shane Ashley who got 13 and then Romero hit yet another sophomore Elijah Kenney, with a swing pass and a 25-yard gain. Cael Walton scored from 1 yard out with only :04 left in the half for a 40 – 0 lead.
The second half went quickly with a continuous clock for most all of the time as Frankie Hernandez gave Raton a good starting position with a kickoff return just into SFIS territory. The Tigers were driving for another score, but SFIS’s Malachi Martinez stepped in front of a pass and the Braves started at their own 1-yard line. Another 11 plays and it looked like the Braves might break through on offense, but Elijah Kenney intercepted a Lomeyestewa Ami pass to end the threat and the third quarter.
Kenney would get a fumble recovery to give Raton the ball, but Caleb Martinez scooped up a Raton fumble and scored on a 60-yard return, to give the Braves their points with 1:23 left in the game.
Raton will travel to West Las Vegas next Friday, October 6 for a district game against the Dons. KRTN will broadcast the game on 93.9 FM and will stream the audio only on Facebook.
