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Jal

Jal Sets Sun On Clovis In Interclass Matchup

Tagged under: Beyond The Keystone, Game Photos, Gameday Hub

| September 16, 2022


Deep in the southeast corner of New Mexico stands one small town with one small name: Jal. Named for a cattle brand of the ranch in the area, JAL is as simple as it is unique. The letters interlocked into a flourished A-like insignia inside the Zia Sun symbol, is prominent in every aspect of the team.

And it shows with the football team. The Jal Panthers have recorded more than a little success in the Land of Enchantment. The Panthers proudly boast titles from 1939, 1959, 1960, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1974, 1980, 1983, 1992, 1994, and 1999. The oil boom in the region, extending its fingers from west Texas across the border to the fringe old west towns that make up the Route 18 corridor from Kermit, Texas to Hobbs and points north. It has reflected greatly on Jal’s facilities and investment in their school and sports teams. A great turf field, track, loud sound system, LED lighting, lit entry way, and that’s just the football stadium. A water sports facility sits across the street.

Now, despite the oil money flowing through the area, Jal is still small. Those coming for work, are also transient enough to not find roots. But the small town thrives on the passersby. Their football team, though, like the town, is top notch.

Recording four victories on the season, 65-0 to Tucumcari, 57-0 at Tularosa, 44-0 to Hobbs, and 50-0 at Dexter. That first one is impressive in their own right. In New Mexico, as does South Dakota, a 50-point mercy rule ends the game after halftime. They may have a 35 point running clock. But 50 stops the clock permanently. That was a halftime score.

Now, this game, against Clovis, like the matchup in Week 3, is an interclass game. Unlike out east, out west things are done just a bit different. This isn’t Junior Varsity the way you or I would describe it in Pennsylvania.

Clovis, like Hobbs, are very big towns in southeastern New Mexico. And, with Jal’s location, among other issues, finding opponents without a ridiculous travel budget, become an issue. So, the smaller schools play the bigger schools. But not straight up. The bigger schools will field a second team of players that won’t carry over into the other game the way they would in Pennsylvania.

For the uninitiated, in Pennsylvania, the Junior Varsity is comprised mostly of players inelligible or unable to play in the varsity game that weekend. Instead playing on Saturday or Monday proceeding the usual Friday night contest. If they play, or play too much, on Friday, they’re no longer playing in the JV game. This, however, is a second team playing on Thursday night. Before the A team plays Friday. There is no carryover to play in both. They’re playing Thursday. And that’s that.

Smaller schools do this out west (you see it in Wyoming a lot, as well) where there just isn’t a lot of schools to go around. And a school nearly ten times as big can easily field more than one football team. And those secondary teams easily able to compete with the smaller schools that dot the landscape around them.

And that was almost the case on Thursday. The Clovis Wildcats came in staring down the gauntlet at a Jal team that had given up just a single touchdown all season. Clovis started with the ball and immediately went 3 and out.

On the first play, Jacob Lujan would run 39 yards for the touchdown. After an interception by Fernando Rubio was returned to the 1 yard line, Alexavier Carreon ran it in for six, giving the Jal Panthers a 13-0 lead after an incomplete pass on the try for point.

Then it was back to Jacob Lujan, with a 31 yard touchdown run. Answering the first accumulation of yards by Clovis. The second quarter was more of the same. Jacob Lujan would rumble in from 54 yards out. And then on an Ito Arroyo pick, take the lateral the rest of the way in for another score. Isaiah Rodriguez going 50% on the extra points for those scores.

Alexavier Carreon would add to the impressive lead with a 37 yard run of his own. Rubio knocking it through the uprights. And with 1:06 left in the first half, Jacob Lujan would get his own pick six, a 43 yarder for a touchdown with his own feet. The Rodriguez kick would make it 47-0. Dangerously close to the 50-point cutoff. But, not before halftime.

After the fifteen minute intermission, the two teams squared up again. With a relentless running clock, the time ticked by quickly. But, with just under two minutes remaining in the third, Alexavier Carreon would punch it in from three yards out to end the game, 53-0.

Between the two, Lujan would record five touchdowns. Three on the ground, and two defensively. One on his own interception, and another on the lateral. Alexavier Carreon would add three more scores. All on the ground, including the winner. On defense, Fernando Rubio would record two picks.

Next week, Jal hosts Capitan for homecoming. Looking to extend their unbeaten season and looking to add another year to the empty space on the marquee.

For more, and larger, photos from this game, click HERE.

For photos from previous weeks and seasons, visit http://www.flickr.com/sykotyk/sets/

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
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