THE CROSSES –
It’s no secret that Las Cruces High School needed a setback against visiting La Cueva on Saturday after their angry loss to Cibola last week.
But aside from a one-yard touchdown run towards the end of the first half, Las Cruces struggled in a 28-10 loss to the Bears on Saturday when the Bulldawgs lost their second straight game of the season. Las Cruces conceded 28 points in the second half after maintaining a 7-0 lead at half time and only penetrated La Cueva’s red zone once after the break.
The following happened on Saturday afternoon:
How it happened
The Bulldawgs fought their way out of the gate for the third game in a row.
Las Cruces have accumulated 20 points in the first half in their first three games of the season, including being eliminated in the first half of last week against Cibola.
The Bulldawgs’ problems continued against La Cueva.
Las Cruces’ only first-half score came in the final 30 seconds on a one-yard touchdown run by senior running back Elijah Ogas, and the Bulldawgs missed several drives due to a mixture of penalties and missed assignments.
La Cueva fared not much better.
The Bears missed 40-yard field goal in the first quarter was closest in the first half, and La Cueva failed to break into Las Cruces’ 30-yard line after the first quarter. Both teams desperately needed a big game to start the second half.
The bears did it first.
Senior quarterback Aidan Armenta brought La Cueva onto the board with a 34-yard touchdown run midway through the first quarter. On the next possession, after a Bulldawg punt, Armenta found second receiver Jackson Hix for the longest passing game of the game to get La Cueva into the red zone. Junior running back Gabriel Buie knocked him out from nine yards two games later to give the Bears a 14-7 lead by the end of the third quarter.
La Cueva freezes in the last third.
Buie tore down a 46-yard touchdown run in the opening minute of the final third to put the Bears 21-7 ahead in the fourth quarter, and La Cueva’s defense kept Las Cruces on a 41-yard field goal the rest on one point of the game.
The stars of Saturday
Senior Las Cruces receiver Berto Zamora caught two passes from over 30 yards in defeat. Buie finished with three touchdowns, including two on runs of 46 and 43 yards, respectively, and Armenta scored a touchdown on a 34-yard touchdown run.
What would be said
Las Cruces head coach Mark Lopez on the defeat: “Our goal this week was to get better. We have to get better at what we do. We have a lot of things to clean up and I think we’ve made some steps forward in a lot of areas this week, but some things that showed up in the first few weeks did show up again, especially in the second half. We just have to run. We have to learn. We have to keep our heads up and move forward. As I told these guys, everyone should jump off the train. That’s okay. Let everyone talk about trash on Twitter, let everyone do what they have to, but we will keep moving forward. We’ll keep getting better and better, and we’ll be battle-tested by the time we get to the district. That’s the reality.
Lopez on what came up in the second half, which he noticed in the first two games: “We have to execute. We dropped some snapshots, this is a recurring thing that we need to fix. I do not know why. It doesn’t show in practice, but it shows in games. We have some reads to fix and only some execution points. Just a few simple protection adjustments that we have in our system. We have an experienced offensive line and for some reason these protection adjustments are not being made. But they are simple. The good thing is that 98% of it is correctable. “
Lopez, if he feels that if the Bulldawgs stay on track, things will work out, “It is. It will work. I don’t feel like that, I know it like that. It is. It will work. We’ve been here before, we’ve been in exactly the same situation. We started a season 1-3 or 1-4 and won a state championship in 2002 with 9-4. We have experience with this stuff. We know there is a recipe for success right now, and we’re just missing a few ingredients to put it all together. We have a lot of things that are going well, it’s just not all together. We all need 11 (men) in every game and if we do I think we’ll be in good shape. “
What’s next
Las Cruces travels to Rio Rancho next week to compete against Cleveland in a powerhouse competition, while La Cueva travels to Albuquerque to compete with Volcano Vista.
Stephen Wagner is a sports reporter for Las Cruces Sun-News. He can be found on Twitter at @ stephenwag22 and can be reached at [email protected].
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