Sleepy Horsemen wake up to take district opener

Source: Albuquerque Journal, N.迷你倉M.Nov. 03--ALBUQUERQUE -- For St. Michael's, the 11 a.m. wake-up call for Saturday's District 5 football opener came in the form of an Albuquerque Academy interception followed by a 68-yard Charger scoring drive.But once the Horsemen (9-0, 1-0 district) rubbed the sleep out of their eyes, Class 3A's top-ranked squad rattled off 21 unanswered points en route to a 41-27 win over Academy (6-3, 0-2) at Richard A. Harper Memorial Field. It was St. Mike's 22nd straight victory -- the state's second longest active win streak."It's kind of hard to get motivated playing this early," said Horsemen quarterback Keith Dominguez, who recovered from the early pick to finish with 272 passing yards and two scores. "But right after that interception, they came back with momentum -- that woke us up for sure."After the Gabe Remer pick on the first play of the game, the Chargers used seven plays to get on the board. Devin Maez found Ramiro Carvajal-Marquez from 4 yards out for the score.Carvajal-Marquez finished with nine catches for 133 yards and two touchdowns.Unfortunately for the host squad, the rest of the half belonged to the Horsemen.St. Mike's answered with a five-play, 84-yard scoring drive, as Nathanyal Leyba finished things off with a 19-yard touchdown run at 7:18 in the opening period. It was the first of three scores for the Horsemen junior. The score was set up by Dominguez passes of 25 and 23 yards.Dominguez then connected with Isaiah Dominguez for a 69-yard touchdown pass on the first series of the second period. St. Mike's concluded the first-half scoring with a five-play, 75-yard drive and a 10-yard Daniel Ortega touchdown run for a 21-6 lead. Ortega, however, would leave the game later in the period with an ankle injury, not to return. Isaiah Dmini storageminguez, Leyba and freshman phenom Xavier Vigil would carry the rushing load in he second half.While Academy closed to within a score, at 21-13, late in the third period after mounting an 82 yard scoring drive, the Horsemen responded with 13 unanswered points. Leyba, who finished with a season-high 164 total yards of offense and three scores, hauled in a Keith Dominguez screen pass and ran 39 yards for the touchdown."It was a team effort today," Leyba, who is also nursing a rib injury, said. "Our offensive line came into this game ready, and they've been ready all year. I had a good day, but I couldn't have done it without those guys on the line."Isaiah Dominguez followed Leyba's score with a 51-yard rushing touchdown of his own. He finished with 90 yards on the day -- all in the second half as St. Mike's led 34-13.While the Chargers did make things interesting late in the final period with a quick strike from Maez to Zach Moya -- a strike that took 17 second off the clock -- St. Mike's would protect its margin with a final score.Leyba's 24-yard scoring run with 1:23 to play put the Horsemen up 41-20 to effectively end the game. Academy did, however, add a 66-yard scoring drive with seven seconds left on the clock. Maez hit Carvajal-Marquez in the end zone from 17 yards out to conclude the scoring."We were up and down today," St. Mike's coach Joey Fernandez said. "We had a lot ofinjuries, and I honestly don't think the kids were awake at 11 o'clock. But, when we needed them, people made big plays."We did sputter after Daniel went out, but we got it going again in the fourth."Fernandez said.Copyright: ___ (c)2013 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.) Visit the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.) at .abqjournal.com Distributed by MCT Information Services迷你倉