New Mexico Spotlight: Texico Wolverines Win Class 2A Championship (PHOTO GALLERY)

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Sykotyk | November 20, 2023

In New Mexico on Saturday, the Texico Wolverines hosted the Eunice Cardinals for the New Mexico Activities Association’s Nusenda Credit Union Class 2A Championship Game. Texico started strong with an early lead, overcame some tense moments, and unleashed a fury of points in the third quarter to win comfortably, 44-7 for their first state title since 2008.

Luke Thompson started the scoring with a 15 yard reception from Cade Figg. After some early back-and-forth, it was Texico that found the scoresheet first just over nine minutes into the game.

Early in the second quarter, Maddox Mata would help tie the game for Eunice, with his touchdown catch. The PAT would tie it at 7-7 with 9:07 left in the half. The Wolverines would answer, though, as Eric Davalos scores on a 4 yard catch five minutes later. Giving Texico a 14-7 halftime advantage.

In the third quarter, Cade Figg would run it in himself from short yardage for a score. Doubling the Wolverines’ lead to 21-7 just 3:46 into the second half.  A quick turnover would setup Texico with another opportunity, a 4 yard run by Alex Fuentes pushes the lead to 28-7 with just under 18 minutes left in the game. Fuentes wouldn’t be done, however, as he’d score again on a 6 yard run with 1:40 left in the third quarter.

With a comfortable 35-7 lead and Eunice struggling to move the ball downfield, Texico finds the endzone again on the legs of Cade Figg from one yard out. The successful PAT enough to give Texico a running clock with 8:58 left to go, up 42-7. As the clock wound down, Eunice forced a turnover deep in their own territory and recovered. Setting up a possession near their goal line. After taking a knee on a busted pass attempt to avoid a sack, quarterback Jacob Ortega would attempt to avoid another sack by throwing a pass away in the endzone. Though it was ruled a safety. With 1:25 left, Texico received the free kick after the safety and ran out the clock for their well deserved championship on their home field.

Unlike most other states, New Mexico does not generally play neutral site championships for football. Instead, they wait until the matchup is determined and go with a ‘last host travels’ format. In a state with just 160 football playing teams, split into six classifications, the chances of repeat matchups is rather high. So, the higher seed hosts. Unless this particular matchup has been played before in a state final, and then the other team will alternate hosting duties.

#1 Eunice had hosted #2 Texico in a state championship game in 2019. So, the rematch will be played in Texico. Regardless of seeding. Texico also hosted the state championship game last year, when they lost to Jal.

New Mexico is the last of two states that host state championship games at the venues of a participating team. The other is Montana. Many states still split their games up among multiple sites, such as Kansas, where each game is played at a separate pre-selected location throughout the state, at the same time, but are inherently neutral.

PHOTO GALLERY

For more, and larger, photos from these two games, click HERE (page 2)

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

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