NMMI Sports Press
The New Mexico Military Institute Colt Football team suffered their first loss of the young season, falling to the Wolverines 43-21 Friday night in Texico, NM.
“We knew coming in that Texico was going to be a really good team,” said NMMI head coach Randy Montoya. “The message all week was ‘are we up to the challenge?’ and obviously we weren’t. But it’s good. We needed a little punch in the face to try and figure out what we need to do.”
The Colts received the opening kickoff and picked up two quick first downs on the legs of senior quarterback Juan Badillo and junior running back Leonardo Lopez. But the Texico defense adjusted quickly and shut down the NMMI run game, leading to the first punt of the night.
The Wolverines needed eight plays to find the end zone behind the hard running combo of quarterback Cade Figg and running back Alex Fuentes.
But the Colts would respond with a long scoring drive of their own led by Badillo and Lopez and aided by a pair of Texico penalties, the second of which set NMMI up inside the Wolverine 10-yard line where Lopez took the handoff and banged it in to pull the Colts within a point at 8-7.
Thing kept going NMMI’s way on the first play of Texico’s next drive as sophomore defensive back Alex Sanchez intercepted a Figg pass. Badillo picked up a first down on the ground before three straight incompletions derailed the drive.
The Figg and Fuentes show continued as the Wolverines scored 28 unanswered points and led 36-7 with a little more than four minutes remaining in the third quarter.
Lopez showed he still had plenty left in the tank as he juked and rumbled for a 59-yard touchdown scamper on the next NMMI drive, lessening the Texico lead to 36-14. After another Wolverine score, Lopez rushed for his third touchdown of the night, this one a 19-yarder.
Montoya said he knew Lopez was a good athlete, but has been pleasantly surprised by his emergence as a go-to playmaker.
“He’s just a great kid. He runs hard and he loves the game,” Montoya said. “For him to sort of tip-toe away like he did there in the second half was impressive. He will continue to play a bigger role going forward.”
In all, Lopez carried the rock 15 times for 132 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 8.8 yards per carry. Badillo rushed 18 times for 78 yards.
The passing game proved to still need tooling as Badillo completed six of his 13 pass attempts for 26 yards, but 23 of those came on a single toss to Sanchez, who finished the game with four receptions for 32 yards. Sanchez also returned two punts for 52 yards.
Montoya said Badillo can sometimes try to do too much, but that’s just who he is.
“He’s a competitor, no doubt. He makes things happen,” he said. “He needs to learn how to play certain situations and do a better job of managing the game. But there’s a lot on his shoulders and he does his best. It’s just natural for him to not let a play die, to not just throw it away.”
Montoya expressed the need for better route running so his quarterback can have more confidence when he passes.
On the defensive side, senior linebacker Christopher Vega recorded six tackles, sophomore DB Cohen Tomasits and junior DB Martin Bustamante each had five and Sanchez had four.
Montoya said his defense needs to tackle more consistently and better learn the defensive schemes.
“(Texico) ran the same motion every time and I don’t think our linbackers adjusted once,” he said. “They have to understand that football is football; it’s a game of reaction and they need to react faster.”
Besides the performance of Lopez, another bright spot was a reduction in penalties from last week’s game. The Colts had just 3 penalties for a total of 11 yards.
Montoya said he hopes his squad will learn more from the loss than they have from their two blowout victories.
“It’s good. We needed a little punch in the face,” he said. “We learned a lot tonight. We learned more about who we can trust in those tough situations. A good team will show you that.”
NMMI takes the show on the road for a third-straight time next Friday, albeit a shorter trip, 25 miles south to Hagerman for a matchup with the 2-1 Bobcats, who also lost their first game tonight.