At the end of the last game of the season, Pojoaque football coach Pat Mares told the team that he had decided to step down as head coach after five seasons, and focus more on coaching within the Pojoaque Crush youth program and his 10-year-old son, Brendan.
“I attend my son’s games every Saturday, and I’m yelling on the field and helping,” Mares said. “And I can’t be a parent that does that. I have to be a coach that does that.”
Mares said he wanted to change the program in Pojoaque, and provide stability for a team that had been known for having a new coach every year or two.
“I can say that we kind of turned that corner,” Mares said. “Losing a bunch of seniors didn’t help. But I’m super proud of the team and the guys that suited up in this uniform today. They didn’t quit. They have a heart that, I don’t know what size it is, but it’s big.”
The Elks (0-9, 0-3 in district) finished their winless season on senior night on Friday, where they lost by an average margin of 53-2, with a 52-7 loss to the Española Sundevils (6-4, 1-2). The 45-point win for Española is a swing of 95 points from a year ago, when Pojoaque won 56-6, and the Elks also won 50-0 in April 2021.
“It was a rough game today,” said Pojoaque senior quarterback Adam Pacheco. “I was happy to do it with my brothers, though. It was a good year.”
Pojoaque struggled all season after losing a talented senior class from last year’s 5-4 team. A tough schedule did not help, either — easily their most winnable opportunity, against Santa Fe Indian, was called off due to rain just as they were starting to gain offensive momentum in the game. All of their opponents have a winning record.
“It was just a rough year for everybody,” Pacheco said. “We had a lot of inexperienced people, but this was the experience that they needed. Next year, they’ll be better.”
Pojoaque also has two female players on the team, showing the commitment from the school and community. Karlicia Salazar, part of the kickoff coverage unit, and Ashley Tafoya both played in the Crush program, and Mares said Salazar was a league MVP.
“They bring the willingness to work and get better,” Mares said. “And that’s what we need from the whole program.”
Within the game, Adrick DeLeon’s long punt return touchdown was a great spark for Española. Jack Purdy led the Sundevils with three touchdowns and 159 yards on 16 carries, while fellow running back Alex Chavez gained 98 yards and a score on 14 attempts. Nate Chacon was an efficient 11-for-15 for 166 yards passing, with two touchdowns going to Victor Parra. And Kevin Coffeen was the leading receiver with four catches and 84 yards.
Pacheco gained 168 yards through the air for the Elks, going 11-for-32 with a long touchdown pass to Ethan Meloy Chavez. Killian Medina was the leading receiver at 77 yards. But Pojoaque’s run game especially struggled, with negative total yards. Their longest run of the day was a seven-yard scramble by Pacheco.
“They fought hard, they battled hard, I’m proud of their kids,” Española coach Tylon Wilder said. “They came out with a lot of spirit, and we had to work hard to stop them.”
Pojoaque came out with fire at the start of the game. On Española’s first drive, the Elks defense forced a turnover on downs at the nine-yard line. Then the offense came out hot, with good passes by Pacheco getting to midfield. But a pass that would have gone down to the 5-yard line came back on a penalty, and they were forced to punt.
The Sundevils then marched down the field and scored, and would score on their next four drives, holding Pojoaque to barely any yardage, to take a 30-0 halftime lead. Pojoaque’s one strong dive, buoyed by penalty yardage, ended with an interception thrown by a running back on a trick play — with Abraham Tamayo grabbing the pick in his first game.
Pojoaque’s defense made a couple of stops in the second half, including an interception by Corey Gonzales, and scored on a 52-yard touchdown pass from Pacheco on fourth down.
“I just saw the best opportunity to put points on the board,” Pacheco said. The play call, he said, was all straight deep routes, called “Normandy”.
But outside of that, Pojoaque gained no momentum, and were outscored 22-7 in the second half, with much of it played with a running clock.
Española finished the year with a winning record, a rarity for the Sundevils.
“It’s surreal really,” Wilder said. “We had goals coming into the season. 6-4 wasn’t one of them.”
The Sundevils will now wait to see if their name gets called for the playoffs at the Saturday night selection show. Entering the game, they were ranked No. 13 in MaxPreps rankings for 4A. Twelve teams make the postseason.
“I’m expecting to get voted into the playoffs,” Wilder said. “But that’s not up to me at this point. I’m hoping for the best.”