It took one-half of the football game for the Escalante Lobos to adjust from 11-man Class 2A to the eight-man game Friday night, but by that time, the Tatum Coyotes built a 14-point halftime lead en route to a 46-30 victory in Tatum.
The Lobos, under first-year head coach and 2010 Escalante graduate Carlos Casados, simply made too many mistakes to overcome the Coyotes.
“I think we lost four fumbles, including one on a kickoff,” Casados said. “It was a rocky, rough first half. We gained yardage if we held onto the ball. We didn’t maintain control of the ball and (Tatum) capitalized on field position advantage gained from the turnovers.”
He was pleased with his defense in the second half.
“I think there was a little adjustment with live, full-contact (8-man) football and adjusting to three less players on the field,” Casados said. “I think we know better now, what we need to do defensively. In the second half, we were ‘on point,’ reading our keys correctly, making stops and delivering hits. Fundamentally, we have to work on holding on to the ball.”
But the Lobos, who have won three NMAA 11-man football championships (two Class 2A and one Class 1A) during the last 12 seasons, maybe weren’t accustomed to some of the nuances of the 8-man game Friday.
“We had some miscommunication on some substitutions in the first half,” Casados said. “And in 8-man football, we learned that if you make one mistake (defensively) you can give up a big play. You can see around the state that (8-man) football is a higher scoring game.”
Junior running back Braylon Emery scored two touchdowns for Escalante, while R.J. Atencio and Gumicindo “Gumi” DeYapp each added a touchdown for the Lobos.
“We did have some first-game jitters, but I think we’ll get it sorted out,” Casados said.
Escalante hosts Roswell’s Gateway Christian at 7 p.m. Friday in Tierra Amarilla. Gateway Christian thumped Cloudcroft, 57-0, Friday.
The Lobos have 28 players out for the team, which is similar to the number of players Escalante has had to field 11-man teams in the past. Since the elimination of 11-man Class 1A football last decade, enrollment of around 110 students from ninth through 12th grade marks the cutoff for 11-man football, now.
“We could petition to play up (in Class 2A) but then we would be playing several schools with double our enrollment,” Casados said. “We know that there are several (former) Class 1A schools that would like to play 11-man football, but just not enough (to create a specific Class 1A 11-man football division).”
Captains Jeremiah Martinez, Marcelo Baeza, Damien Baeza, DeYapp and Stephen Vance, as well as juniors Joel Valdez and Jerome Montoya, all anchor a defense that can hopefully carry over its stability from the second half against Tatum to contain high-scoring Gateway Christian.