The Raton Tigers Football team continued on a roll by winning their third straight game with a 41-0 win at Questa on Friday night, September 30.
The Tigers started the game on their heels as Questa returned the opening kickoff to the Raton 32, but the Tiger defense stiffened and did not break for the rest of the game.
The Raton offense has also caught fire in the last three victories scoring 42, 55 and last nights 41 to force a continuous clock on their opponents in each game.
Raton special teams played a big part in the win from the beginning of the game as a good punt return by Ismael Tafoya set up Raton’s first score, a 24 yard run by Jonathan Cabriales. Cabriales also found the wall of blockers for a 51 yard punt return for a TD to begin the second half and had a 75 yard TD run nullified on the first play of the game by a Raton holding call. Cabriales is also the punter/placekicker for the Tigers and his toe gave the Tigers the quick lead 7-0 with 4:41 left in the first quarter. Cabriales work as a punter wasn’t needed, though, as Raton didn’t punt the ball all night at Questa. His prowess as a placekicker was tested when a drive stalled in the first quarter. Cabriales nailed a 37 yarder, but the Raton offense was flagged for a procedure penalty, so the ensuing 42 yard attempt, hit the crossbar and bounced away no good.
Quarterback Dustin Segura’s play during the three game win streak has been stellar. The Raton signal-caller was on-target with his passes all night including a 52 yard rainbow bomb to Gabe Martinez in the first quarter and a 17 yard scoring dart to Cabriales in the second. Segura also used his speed for a quarterback draw TD run of 10 yards midway thru the second quarter.
The second half had only one score and it was a 30 yard thing of beauty as Ismael Tafoya bobbed and weaved through the Wildcats defense for the score at the 6:58 mark.
The Tigers record improved to 4-2 with the win, but the season starts over as district play begins next week. The Tigers will travel to Clayton on October 7 for a matchup at 7:00 pm. Even though Clayton is winless, the Tigers have had trouble with Clayton the last few years and will need to play at a high level to defeat the Yellowjackets. The game will be broadcast on KRTN FM 93.9 and will be streamed on Network1Sports.com.
